The fiscal effect of labeling since the introduction of the Honest Mark system and until the end of 2023 is estimated at 791 billion rubles, a significant part of which is additional excise taxes and taxes, from reducing illegal turnover in the tobacco industry. This was announced at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT, operator of the Honest Sign marking) Mikhail Dubin.
"If we talk about the effects of labeling, the fiscal effect from 2019 to 2023 is estimated at 791 billion rubles, and a significant part is additional excise taxes and taxes that were paid to the budget as a result of reducing illegal turnover in the tobacco industry," Dubin said, speaking at the session "Combating illegal competition, or how to return hundreds of billions of rubles to the budget."
The tobacco market was one of the first to join the labeling system. According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Ekaterina Priezzheva, the share of illicit tobacco trafficking has decreased significantly over the past five years. If in 2019 the indicator was at the level of 15.6%, then by the end of 2023 it had decreased to 12.6%.
As Oleg Barvin, Director of Legal Affairs and External Corporate Relations at International Tobacco Marketing Services JSC, noted, if at least about 80% of the nicotine delivery systems market were "reset", the total amount of taxes could reach 20-30 billion rubles.
"It turns out that several tens of billions were not received by the budget precisely because part of the market is now in the shadow segment," he said.
The session also discussed the negative consequences of the shadow market, affecting both the interests of the state and bona fide producers.
"It is difficult to compete with the player who does not pay excise duty, does not pay import duties, does not apply a labeling system, does not pass through licensing systems and so on," Barvin said.
In turn, Sergey Glushkov, Director of Corporate Relations and Communications at JTI Russia, noted that quite a lot has been done in recent years to combat shadow business.
"I agree with the new slogan that this should be a matter not only for the state and industry, but it should become a matter for every conscious citizen," Glushkov said.
Russia has switched to a risk-based approach in control and supervisory activities, which is carried out through a labeling system. This approach allows you to evaluate unscrupulous participants remotely in real time and come to them with checks when risk indicators are triggered and not distract legitimate businesses from their work.
The Honest Mark marking system has been implemented in Russia since 2019 to counteract the illegal turnover of goods. It covers caviar, dairy products, bottled water, soft drinks, tobacco, beer, shoes, light industry goods, fur coats, tires, perfumes, cameras, medical devices, wheelchairs, antiseptics, dietary supplements and medicines.
Experiments are also currently underway on labeling vegetable oils, canned food, animal feed, veterinary drugs, pharmaceutical raw materials, children's goods, educational literature, perfumery, cosmetics and household products, radiators, rehabilitation equipment, building materials, fiber-optic and electronic products.
In Russia, labeling applies to 17 categories, which account for 15% of the country's non-resource GDP. The cumulative effects of labeling are estimated at 791 billion rubles.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum will be held from 5 to 8 June. The theme of this year's forum is "The foundation of a multipolar world is the formation of new growth points." Meetings of SMEs, creative business, SPIEF Youth Day, as well as forums "Drug Safety", "SPIEF Academy" and "SPIEF Junior" are planned. The organizer is the Roscongress Foundation. TASS acts as an information partner of the event.
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