Tobacco black market falls below 5 years' average in Romania

The Romanian tobacco black market dropped in July to 14.9 percent compared with the 16.9 percent in May, according to the data of the research company Novel Research. The result from July is also under the average from 2015 and under the one from the last five years, of around 15 percent.

Ukraine and Moldova are the main source of black market tobacco from Romania, with 16.5 percent, respectively 15.7 percent from the black market, despite the decrease of its share by two percentage points compared with the level registered two months before. The main products traded on the black market are still cheap whites, with a 59.9 percent share.

„Even if the black market dropped by two percentage points, we are still far from the European average of the illegal cigarettes trade, of 10 percent. Moreover, the fluctuating evolution of the smuggling from the beginning of the year and until now determine us to be cautious in predicting a real decreasing trend. The illegal traffic and the smuggling are encouraged because we lack the regional development solutions for certain ares of Romania, where illegal trade represents the only income source for a part of the population. We need a National Strategy of Fight Against Illegal Trade, to get together all the decision power factors on the industry regarding the regulation, fiscal policy and the legal decision makers,” said Alexandra Olaru, director of corporate affairs of Philip Morris Romania.

According to Dorel Fronea, vice president of tax administration agency ANAF and coordinator of the Romanian Customs Authority, the institution is going through a major reorganization program and the reduction of the black market is one of the signs that this effort is bearing fruition.

Gilda Lazar, director corporate affairs & communications at JTI Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria, said that the black market has been reduced by 2 percent despite the legal uncertainty involving the producers of cigarettes. She explained that Romania has failed to transpose the EU Directive on Tobacco, although two years have passed since it was published in the EU Official Journal.

“To further increase this confusion, there are two almost similar draft bills, one that is under debate in the Chamber of Deputies and another, which is a Government Emergency Ordinance, initiated in parallel by the Government. None of them includes any transition period for the changes of production and manufacturing according to future rules, with the real risk of disturbing the official market and of stimulating the black market,” added Lazar. She said that the tax policy in Romania remained stable and there were any sudden changes in the recent period.