Electronic system to simplify vodka sales in Tatarstan
A license to sell alcohol can be obtained from the comfort of home
In Tatarstan, an electronic system will be introduced to control the turnover of alcoholic beverages. The tender for the development of the resource for 10,5 million rubles was placed by the structure of the ministry of digitalisation of the Republic of Tatarstan, but the real customer was the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan. As Realnoe Vremya newspaper found out, the project will combine different databases, including the USAIS, and will give the opportunity to get a license to sell alcohol over the Internet, without visiting inspectors. “Thanks to the new system, we will stop torturing people," the customers explain, adding that this will simplify business life and help in the fight against counterfeit goods.
10 million rubles — for alcocontrol system
The Centre for Digital Transformation of the Republic of Tatarstan, subordinate to the ministry of digitalisation of the Republic of Tatarstan, will spend 10,5 million rubles to create the Alcohol Inspection System. However, as Realnoe Vremya found out, the functional customer is the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan itself.
As explained in the department, the system is created for the convenience of entrepreneurs themselves. With its help, it will be possible to track the volume of alcohol produced, existing wholesalers and retail market players. The USAIS will become a source of information.
As follows from the tender documentation, the purpose of the new system will be to automate the activities of the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan. The Alcohol Inspection resource will create a single information space for accounting and monitoring the turnover and quality of alcoholic beverages in the Republic of Tatarstan, accounting for issued licenses, and the results of business inspections. In addition to the relationship with the supervisory authority, the system will simplify the interaction between the participants of the alcohol market themselves — using the USAIS data (until now it was a very closed system).
The electronic system is to appear before the end of 2021. In addition to accounting and monitoring of alcohol itself, it will automatically manage the licensing process for retail sales of alcohol-containing products. It will also monitor the quality of drinks both produced and imported to the republic.
It will be possible to license the sale of alcohol online
The electronic system will synchronise several databases of information at once, in particular, objects that sell alcohol (as well as addresses and types of alcoholic beverages), and information available in the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan and the USAIS. It will keep records of all alcoholic beverages both in circulation on the territory of the Republic of Tatarstan and produced by enterprises of Tatarstan. It will also take into account the activities of wholesale organisations and retail outlets that sell alcohol.
In addition to simplifying the work for the State Alcohol Inspectorate itself — the new system should simplify the life of businesses that no longer need to submit reports monthly or quarterly: “The Alcohol Inspection will give the opportunity to organise the reception and registration of information on the current reporting period from enterprises that produce alcohol, alcohol-containing and alcoholic products, wholesalers and retailers, as well as public catering.
The primary importance of the system, as the customers said, is to simplify the licensing of the retail sale of alcohol-automatic accounting of the applications themselves (they can be submitted and received online), extension of the license terms, refusal to issue, and so on. The system will eventually form registers of applications, expert opinions, issued, extended, suspended and revoked licenses for the retail sale of alcoholic beverages, licenses issued to manufacturing enterprises and wholesale companies engaged in the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products.
“Thanks to the new system, we will stop torturing people”
Deputy Head of the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustem Arslanov, explaining how the Alcohol Inspection will be useful for entrepreneurs, noted that the USAIS has been a closed system until now. In fact, AI will make the market more transparent.
“The USAIS is a record of the turnover of alcoholic beverages, and the new electronic system will relate to our internal activities. There will be many different directions in this system, but the main thing that we are doing right now is licensing alcoholic beverages. The new system will have to help businesses do this, so that our licensees do not go to us, for example, but can get a license right at home by submitting an application in electronic form 'in one window' and get an extract from the register. Everything will be automatic," Rustem Arslanov said.
The second important function of the electronic system is to minimise the paper document flow, in particular, to stop the endless declarations that market players are still forced to fill out and send to the State Alcohol Inspectorate.
“We, thanks to the new system, will stop torturing people — wholesalers, traders or manufacturers, on a monthly basis. The new system will allow us to immediately download information from the USAIS, where we will be given open access, on the basis of which we will make our own system module," Arslanov explained the benefits of the IT innovation.
How electronic system will help in the fight against counterfeit goods
Alcohol quality control will also become automated: laboratories testing alcohol-containing products will be connected to the system, and businesses will have the opportunity to declare themselves, bypassing the paper document flow.
The electronic system Alcohol Inspection is created for the convenience of entrepreneurs, the inspectors insist: in times of digitalisation, the department is trying to simplify all procedures for businesses. Besides, the creation of the new system is, in fact, also an anti-corruption measure: so that entrepreneurs visit the inspectors as little as possible in person and “so that in the end everything is solved remotely”.
“In part, the “Alcohol Inspection will also help in the fight against counterfeit alcohol," said Rustem Arslanov, the deputy head of the State Alcohol Inspectorate of the Republic of Tatarstan. “The new database will contain all the information, for example, about a commercial object or an entrepreneur. This will be a service with the exchange of information with the USAIS. This is a closed system — USAIS, it is aimed at accounting for alcohol turnover. So far, we have been able to make a minimal number of requests to it. Now we are negotiating on that any information concerning Tatarstan can be downloaded from the USAIS.”