In front of large increases in prices of cigarette Smokers will be found if the Commission’s plans proceed to revise the directive setting the amount of tobacco taxation, according to ERTnews.
According to the proposal – which was employed by the Council of Finance Ministers of the European Union last week – there is an increase of 139% of the excise duty by 2028 to € 215 per 1,000 cigarettes, from 90 euros imposed today. This means that The final price of a package of 20 cigarettes, which in Greece today is around € 4.60 and contains taxes of about 3.74 euros (81.3% of the price), could reach or even exceed 7 euros per package, If the companies that trade them do not absorb part of the growth.
In heated cigarettes, the minimum EFK should- according to the plan- be gradually raised from 88 euros per 1,000 pieces to 155 euros. As for the liquid, used in electronic cigarettes, from 10 minutes per milliliter today, the EFK will gradually climb at 36 minutes.
Since the summer, the Commission has lit ‘green’ on the proposal to revise the directive, which has been concerned with special tobacco consumption taxes, citing the unchanged framework for 15 years, and primarily the protection of public health.
The upcoming changes are not irrelevant to the Community budget and in particular the new sources of revenue sought, with the increase in EFS to tobacco being a convenient solution.
Under the current regime, the excise tax on cigarettes must represent at least 60% of the weighted average retail price (WAP) in each Member State and not less than 90 euros per 1,000 cigarettes. In practice, no country is in these minimum tax limits. For example, there are countries with more than twice the EFK, such as Ireland, France, the Netherlands, which suffer from tobacco smuggling.
Greece, despite the reviews of previous years, moves just above the current minimum limits, namely € 117.50 per 1,000 cigarettes. According to European Commission data, state budget revenue is estimated at just more than € 2.3 billion.
The Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, speaking at the last Ecofin meeting last week, after raising the issue of a longer transition period, not to be shocked to the market and consumers, also highlighted the major issue of smuggling. He noted that the excessive increase in taxation favors international smuggling circuits.
According to the results of the annual KPMG report, in 2024, the consumption of illegal cigarettes in Greece reached the lowest level of the last decade. Specifically, the percentage of illegal cigarettes is estimated at 17.5% of total cigarette consumption, reduced by 6.2 percentage points compared to 2023 (23.7%). In total, 2.5 billion illegal cigarettes were consumed, while lost revenue for public funds are estimated at € 438 million for 2024, when in 2023 they had exceeded € 620 million.