The cigarette black market in Romania went up to 15 percent in September this year, compared to 11.8 percent in July, according to the recent data provided by research company Novel.

In the last two years, the figure has stayed at around 13 percent of the total market.

“After the continuous downward trend in the last six months, cigarette smuggling increased significantly by 3.2 percentage points, reaching 15 percent in September,” said Marian Marcu, Manager of Novel Research.

The most important increases were recorded in Bucharest - up 6.2 percentage points against July, and the North West region where the cigarette smuggling went up 7.6 percentage points.

However, the Western region was the most affected by illegal trade, followed by North East and North West regions.

The so called “Cheap Whites” hold the largest share of the black market, namely 36.8 percent, continuing the upward trend, according to Marian Marcu.

Ukraine and Moldova remain two of the main sources of smuggled cigarettes, while Serbia continues the downward trend, to 5.5 percent in September, from as high as 24 percent of the total smuggled cigarettes in 2012.

“In July, the Novel study showed a decrease in smuggling, to 11.8 percent, which made us believe that the black market will drop under the European level of around 10 percent," said Adrian Popa, director corporate & regulatory affairs, BAT Romania.

"Thus, the research findings in September are likely to worry us. The increase with over three percentage points  of the black market brings losses of over EUR 100 million in the state budget."

The tobacco industry ranks high on the list of main contributors to the Romanian state budget.

An approximate 14 percent of Romania’s total budget revenues last year came from excise duties and taxes paid by the cigarette manufacturers.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com