From: Euractiv
By Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com
In an effort to halt the growing illicit tobacco trade from Belarus, the European Commission has called on Minsk to raise its excise duty rates to EU levels.
Günther Oettinger, the EU’s Budget Commissioner, for the first time recognised that low excise taxation on cigarettes in Belarus encouraged illicit trade.
The main drivers of cigarette smuggling from Belarus to the EU were the “big differences in fiscal charges on tobacco products,” he pointed out on Wednesday (22 February).
