The government announced a draft law on excise taxes adopted at the previous cabinet meeting. It stipulates increasing cigarettes excise duty on 1 August from €24 per 1,000 pieces to €30. This will be valid until the end of this year, when this specific excise duty is to be raised to €40. Proportional excise duty will be reduced from 35% to 32%.
The cigarette price was supposed to go up as of 1 July, but it was postponed until 1 August due to shortcomings in the relevant regulations. In the meantime, the Philip Morris company asked the Ministry of Finance to postpone the increase in excise on cigarettes until December 2017.
The Parliament is to discuss the proposal soon.
Yesterday announced text contains amendments to article 50 of the current law which stipulate increasing the specific excise on cigarettes, which amounts to €17.50, to €50. The amendments also specify raising the excise on other tobacco products from current €25 per kilogram to €50.
Not even after announcement of the bill text, there is no precise calculation of how much cigarettes price will be higher. According to estimates, with this excise tax increase, retail price of cigarettes would go up by €0.30-€0.40 per pack.
