The cigarette black market grew in September by one percentage point, up to 7.1% of total consumption, compared to 6.1% in July, according to a study by research company Novel Reserch, Agerpres reads.

The largest increase is recorded in the Northeast, with 9.1 percentage points, up to 22.4%, the region continuing to be the most affected by the illegal cigarette trade. A significant increase is also noted in Bucharest, by 4.9 pp, up to 7.6%. On the other hand, in the north-west there was a decrease of 3.2 pp, up to 5.4%.

„From the point of view of the origin of products from the black market, the ‘cheap whites’ category has the largest share, 40%, with an advance of 2.1 pp compared to July. Moldova is in a slight increase, and Ukraine and Serbia are at a relatively constant level,” said Marian Marcu, general director of Novel Research.

The President of the Romanian Customs Authority, Bogdan Lari Mihei, stated that, in the context in which Romania manages the second largest external border of the European Union, the Authority has an ambitious project to equip border customs offices with equipment for non-destructive customs control, through their placement in the crossing points located at the non-EU borders, with priority at the northern and eastern borders and in the Port of Constanta.

The director of the Economic Crime Investigation Directorate within the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, police chief Aurel Dobre, mentioned that this year, the Romanian Police carried out 159 actions at the local level and 56 actions at the zonal level, to prevent and combat smuggling of tobacco and tobacco products throughout the national territory. The efforts of the police, in 2022, resulted in the confiscation and removal from the black market of over 25 tons of tobacco and approximately 55 million cigarettes.

In 2021, tobacco companies transferred over 19.85 billion RON to the state budget, an increase of 13% compared to 2020.

Agerpres