Cigarette smuggling drops to 13 percent in January

The Romanian black market for cigarettes has decreased this January to about 13 percent, going down almost three times compared to the all-time high of 36.2 percent level registered in January 2010, reveals data from Novel Research.

Compared to November 2011, the cigarette smuggling rate went down by 2 percent.

The main reasons behind the drop were the authorities’ concerted efforts to fight smuggling, including legislative changes and a better collaboration with officials from the Republic of Moldova, where most of the cigarettes are smuggled from, said Gilda Lazar, corporate affairs & communication director with JTI Romania.

The decrease of the black market also means additional funds to the state budget, say producers. This January the income from the excise tax for tobacco went up 42 percent y-o-y, said Adrian Popa, corporate & regulatory affairs manager at BAT Romania.

The main cigarette producers in Romania are Philip Morris Romania, British American Tobacco and JTI Romania.

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