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Study: Cigarette smuggling in Romania in May reached its highest level since January 2020
The black market of cigarettes reached 10.4% of the total of consumption, in May this year, up by 9.8% in March, shows a study made by the research company Novel.
According to data released by JTI on Monday, this is the highest level of smuggling since January 2020.
The survey reveals that cigarette smuggling in May 2024 saw the highest increase in the Northeast, up 5.2 percentage points to 26.5%, followed by the Southeast (+2.6 percentage points to 7.4%),
In terms of the origin of black market products, Duty Free continues to account for the largest share (36.3%), followed by the Republic of Moldova (up 7.4 p.p. to 23.3%) and Bulgaria (22.1%, up 1.6 p.p.).
At the same time, the information centralized on the stopcontrabanda.ro platform, from the beginning of the year to date, shows that the authorities have seized some 34 million smuggled cigarettes, 75% of which in the south of the country.
Compared to other European countries, there is a clear correlation between accessibility and the black market, with the highest rates in Ireland at 24.4% and France at 32.4%, according to the published statistics.
In terms of penalties, in the first five months of the year, the Romanian Border Police seized about 1.3 million packs of cigarettes worth over 30 million lei.
"During the period under review, border guards seized 6,300 kg of loose tobacco and 52 kg of hookah tobacco," said the inspector general of the Border Police, Police Superintendent Cornel-Laurian Stoica.
Tobacco companies, big taxpayers, pay more than 20 billion lei annually to the state budget in excise duties, VAT and other taxes and contributions.