The budget losses of the Russian Federation from the sale of illegal tobacco products in 2024 amounted to 127 billion rubles.
According to a press release from the Small Format Trade Association, such an assessment was made at the round table "Illegal trafficking of tobacco and nicotine-containing products in the Omsk region, Siberia and Russia."
According to the ANO "National Scientific Competence Center in the field of combating illicit trafficking in industrial products", in the Omsk region, which is one of the top ten leaders in the share of illegal tobacco trafficking, one in five cigarettes is illegal (19.3%), which is almost twice as much as the national average (11.4%). In the Altai Territory, this figure is 10.2%. in the Tyumen region - 8.1%, in the Novosibirsk region - 4.4%.
According to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, in 2024, the volume of excise taxes received by the budget of the Russian Federation from domestic tobacco products amounted to 826 billion 695.3 million rubles, which is 14.1% more than in 2023 (724 billion 778.4 million rubles).
As it was stated at the round table, two measures that experts have been proposing for several years can correct the situation in the tobacco market - redistributing part of tobacco excise taxes to regional budgets and bringing excise taxes in line with the level of the EAEU countries.
"Splitting excise taxes (on federal and regional budgets) could motivate subjects to combat illegal tobacco trafficking. This has long been supported by both the State Duma and the Federation Council," said Artem Kiryanov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, quoted in a press release.
Speaking about the need to harmonize excise tax rates with the EAEU countries, Roman Troshkin, JTI Russia's Public Relations manager, said that the adopted agreement in this area is not effective, as it leaves a 40% rate deviation corridor.
In addition, according to the expert, an effective fight against illegal tobacco and nicotine-containing products is impossible without a proactive position of regulatory and law enforcement agencies, including careful control over the turnover of goods and prompt response to violations.
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