Excise to Raise Bulgaria Cigarette Prices

Source from:  Standart News‎  10/12/2013

Places where cigarettes are sold across Bulgaria will be reduced and lawmakers will prepare a plan for raising the excise tax on tobacco products from the beginning of 2014, became clear at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finances.

Tobacco prices should to rise gradually until 2018, when they have to reach the minimum EU levels, Petar Ganev from the Institute for Market Economics suggested.

The aim is that the price of cigarettes should not be raised sharply in order to prevent a drastic increase in their smuggling. The latter proposal was supported by representatives of the tobacco industry and lawmakers who pledged to draw up plans to raise the excise duty before the second reading of changes in the law.

To promote a smooth change, excise duty on cigarettes should be raised by 15%-20% per year, according to the estimates Industry Watch.

The original draft provided for an unchanged duty on cigarettes for 2014. Now lawmakers must decide what kind of steps will be taken and in what pace the duty will be increased.

Tobacco products will be sold only in certain places, according to the best European practices, Parliamentary Committee on Budget and Finances Chair Jordan Conev informed.

He did not specify when the change will be introduced, but said that the proposal will soon be submitted to the commission. The aim is not only to protect people and reduce harm to their health but also to facilitate the work of customs officers, so as to catch more easily smuggled cigarettes, he added.

According to Deputy Finance Minister Lyudmila Petkova, currently there are suspicious tobacco products on the market which are produced from waste. Therefore, changes in the law on these products are necessary. Enditem