Tobacco.org

EUR 140 M - Romanian cigarettes black market 

Bucharest- More than 10 per cent of the cigarettes on the market are smuggled and nearly eight per cent of the spirits marketed are counterfeits. This is what the representatives of the two industries stated at a press conference. The total cigarette sale figure exceeds 35 million pieces, the total value of the market being approximately EUR 1.4 Bln. Gilda Lazar, Corporate Affairs Director with JTI International, stated that tobacco companies pay taxes and charges of almost USD 1 Bln every year. Gilda Lazar also said that the price levelling trend for cigarettes is one of the factors that cause the smuggling, the majority of the goods that are smuggled into country being very cheap. The price rise caused by the entry into effect of the vice tax will only increase the share of counterfeits pr smuggled goods.

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