Poland: Contraband Cigarette Sales Burning Hole in State Coffers

Source from:  Gazeta Wyborcza 07/01/2014

A report by international advisory firm KPMG argues that the consumption of contraband cigarettes is on the rise in Poland.
 
Photo:sxc.huAccording to the report, Poles bought 6.1 billion contraband cigarettes in 2013, meaning that the state treasury lost 2.84 billion zloty (683.4 million euro) in excise tax.

The study indicates that 49 percent of the contraband cigarettes were smuggled from Belarus, where tobacco products are markedly cheaper.

A second stream, and apparently an increasingly dynamic one, sees cigarettes smuggled through the Slovakian border from Greece, Bulgaria and Moldova.

Meanwhile, sales of legitimate cigarettes fell by 11 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to KPMG.

The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has estimated that about 10 billion euro are lost each year to the EU budget as a result of cigarette smuggling. Enditem