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Almost 3 billion unique identification codes have been generated through the Tobacco ID tobacco software system in the last 3 years. A record number of issued identifiers was reported in September 2019, when the system generated over 126 million codes in month. On Average, over 90 million identifiers have been generated in month.
"The Tobacco ID system related to monitoring and tracking the movement of cigarettes and tobacco has greatly reduced the smuggling of tobacco products throughout the country", the Information Services' CEO Ivaylo Filipov said.
Issuer of the identifiers for the tobacco products is the Printing Works of the Bulgarian National Bank Corp. and the technological partner is Information Services The National Customs Agency, which is the controlling body, has access to the tracking system and is able to identify all the information encoded in the codes of the unique identifiers, so it could trace every pack of cigarettes sold on the market.
The system for monitoring the transfer of cigarettes and smoking tobacco was introduced in May 2019 in all EU countries and aims to track tobacco products from manufacturer to retailer. It registers all tobacco manufacturers, warehouses, wholesalers and retailers of tobacco products. They receive unique codes with which each box can be traced and become part of the European Union (EU)-wide tobacco tracking and tracing system (T&T system), which aims to combat tobacco smuggling.
So far, Tobacco ID has registered 32 tobacco manufacturers, over 30,000 retail outlets, 9 factories, 435 warehouses and over 130,000 unique users. The system contains information on 1835 tobacco products and 37 production machines.
Registration of traders and retail outlets is only electronically, even in the absence of an electronic signature. The system allows registration with a power of attorney. According to a survey of service users, the interface of the system is intuitive and easy to use, and the process is as simple and clear as possible. Test environment, that completely overlaps with Tobacco ID, has also been developed. It provides an option for all companies that develop software for their customers' primary repositories to be able to conduct full-fledged tests.