The first raise of excise duty was made in January and the next has come in July that will be effective in October. As a result, the price of cigarettes will go up between EEK 10 and 11 by October, according to Juhan Mitt, CEO of Scandinavian Tobacco Eesti. “The situation is very confusing with retail prices. Many producers are still using their stocks and retail prices have not yet gone up,” said Mitt. “The smokers will have a shock,” he said. Mitt did not believe that tobacco producers would be willing to cover the excise duty increase from their own profit which means that the price of cigarettes could go up by ten kroons by the end of this year.
According to the Ministry of Finance, while average price of cigarette pack was EEK 22 last year, it will be EEK 33 from October. The state plans to collect an extra EEK 40 million from the tobacco excise duty and around EEK 400 million a year.
Source: Postimees.ee
