Romanian customs workers seized almost 49 million smuggled cigarettes worth some EUR 6 million in the first eight months of this year, said Claudiu Ardeleanu, the general manager of Romania’s General Directorate for Customs. This represented a growth of 34% year-on-year.

The three main tobacco companies in Romania, the National Tax Administration ANAF and Romania’s customs recently agreed to collaborate in fighting the black market for cigarettes and cigarette smuggling.

British American Tobacco - BAT, Japan Tobacco International - JTI and Philip Morris International – PMI signed the collaboration protocol with the Romanian authorities on Thursday, September 25. The three tobacco companies will offer their support and knowledge to customs and fiscal workers in discovering counterfeit tobacco products. The customs will provide tobacco companies samples of smuggled, counterfeit cigarettes, as well as data about the volume of smuggled tobacco products.

Future joint programs between tobacco companies and local authorities will include joint canine training for discovering smuggled cigarettes.

In 2013, tobacco companies paid some EUR 2.6 billion in taxes and excises to the state budget, which was 13% of total state budget, and 2% of the GDP. Tobacco excises were about 40% of all excises paid in the country.

editor@romania-insider.com