Jump to full article: Sofia Echo (bg), 2009-10-02
Author: Clive Leviev-Sawyer
Intro: UP IN SMOKE: Contraband cigarettes are incinerated in Montenegro in 2007. Bulgarian tobacco interests allege that reported plans to send cigarette excises soaring from 2010 will push business towards the illegal market.
Bulgaria, which has the second-highest rate of smoking in the European Union, is said to be set to make smokers cough up about 30 per cent more for cigarettes in 2010 - bringing forward by a year increased excises to EU levels in a move designed to help state coffers through increased revenue and decreased health costs.
Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov has confirmed that excises on tobacco products will go up, although with the 2010 Budget not yet finalised, there is no official confirmation yet of the precise price hikes.
Media reports of the planned move brought an outcry from tobacco interests who said that it would worsen Bulgaria's already considerable cigarette smuggling problem and drive the country's tobacco products giant Bulgartabak to bankruptcy. , , ,
Bulgaria's northern neighbour and fellow EU member Romania has taken the route of increased excises - twice in 2009 - on the way to matching EU levels in 2010. Lithuania also has twice raised excises in 2009, pushing cigarette prices up by close to 50 per cent in a year.
A sole reversal of the trend was in Croatia
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