The amount of smuggled cigarettes fell to 12.6 percent of the total sold in Romania, in May this year. The percentage was down from 13.1 percent of the total in March, 2013, and the figure has hovered around the 13 percent mark for the last year and a half, according to research company Novel.

There was a downward trend in most areas, most notably in Bucharest, which recorded a 2 percentage point drop in smuggled cigarettes. The percentage of smuggled cigarettes in the border areas remains much higher than the average. 28.8 percent in the West, 23.5 percent in the North East and 19.8 percent in the North West.

Ukraine and Moldova remain two of the main sources of smuggled tobacco, accounting for 26.6 percent and 24.9 percent of the total respectively. The amount of cigarettes on the black market from Serbia, however, has diminished significantly; from as high as 23 percent of the total smuggled cigarettes in 2012 to just 10.7 percent in May this year.

Representatives of the tobacco industry cite coordinated efforts between the authorities for helping to reduce smuggling. They also said it is important to educate communities in the smuggling hot-spots on the damage it can do on a local and a national scale, such as funding organized crime, losses to the state budget and the sale of unsafe products consumers.

In order to reduce the black market, clearer regulation of smuggling and tax evasion offenses is needed. Extra efforts at the border crossings with Hungary and Bulgaria are needed, such as assigning specific departments of the local police and gendarmerie and resuming the scanning of all vehicles crossing the border, according to the report from research company Novel.

editor@romania-insider.com