Cigarettes' black market exceeds 2.8 billion lei in 2017 (survey)

The Romanian state cashed no tax for rd 16pct of the cigarettes consumed last year in Romania, which means that 2.8 billion lei (equivalent of 640 million euro) have parked to the smuggling rings, according to a release by the British American Tobacco sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

Over 4.3 billion cigarettes were sold in 2017 on Romania's black market and the authorities' steps as regards the illicit cigarettes traffic materialised in total captures of rd 150 million smuggled cigarettes that were prevented from reaching the black market, the source says.

"Romania is the most affected country in Central and Eastern Europe by the smuggling phenomenon and one of the most affected of the European Union. The black market's level in Romania is way above the 9pct European average, and the most affected cigarettes smuggling region further remains the country's northeast. The borders with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova are there, the main origin countries for the counterfeit cigarettes that get to be consumed in Romania," the BAT release reads.

Romania counts for 2,000 km of border with non-EU countries, where the tobacco price could be six-time smaller than in Romania.

In the past 8 years (2010-2017), the Romanian state has lost rd 5.4 billion euro to counterfeiting, the document stresses.

Each illegal cigarettes container means 1 million euro in profit for the smuggling gangs. The Interpol data show that the cigarettes' illicit traffic is a catalyst to the illegal drugs, weapons, persons and even terrorist activities' traffic.

Data on the smuggling level are provided by the Novel Research independent survey.