The losses of the federal budget from the turnover of illegal tobacco in the first half of 2024 amounted to 50.4 billion rubles, the Association of Small-format Trade reported, citing estimates from the National Scientific Competence Center in the field of combating Illicit Trafficking in Industrial Products (NNCC).
In 2023, this figure amounted to 99.2 billion rubles.
Market experts called the difference in excise rates within the EAEU one of the reasons for the continued turnover of illegal products. Harmonization of rates has been underway for a long time, however, the range of deviations from the indicative excise tax rate for cigarettes adopted today within the framework of the harmonization agreement by 20% up or down retains economic incentives for smugglers, according to Roman Troshkin, manager for work with government authorities at JTI Russia.
According to him, Russia needs a moderate excise policy.
Rospotrebnadzor, in turn, points out the imperfections of the tobacco market regulation system. Andrey Puchkovsky, head of the Department for product control in the turnover of the service, notes that the department cannot respond to a point of sale that operates via the Internet or through spontaneous sales. "We are responsible only for those entities that are visible in the labeling system, and others that legally exist that have not yet entered the labeling system," he said.
According to him, it has not yet been possible to reconfigure this system.
The Association of Small-format Trade was established in 2012, representing the interests of small-scale trade entities.
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