Black cigarette market in Romania falls below 11pct in September

The black cigarette market in Romania fell in September below 11pct of the total consumption, for the first time in the last ten years, due to the sharp reduction in "no-name" products, show the findings of the Novel research, made public on Thursday. 

At the national level, the illegal trade in cigarettes thus reached 10.5pct, down 3.2 percentage points compared to July this year. 

Cigarette producers believe that in order to reduce illicit trafficking, several legislative changes are required, which, together with law enforcement authorities, they have been unsuccessfully requesting for several years. 

Thus, in addition to the unitary regulation on a quantitative criterion of the cigarette smuggling offense, it is necessary to intensify operations at the EU internal border checkpoints with Bulgaria and Hungary, access points for the "cheap whites" and raw tobacco products, as well as establishing some specific duties for the local police and the gendarmerie, since the illegal trade in cigarettes is carried out almost unhindered in their area of competence - markets, shops, subway stations. 

The tobacco sector is the second-largest contributor to Romania's state budget, after the oil one.