Another Tobacco Crisis to Rock Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Problems with tobacco acquired a critical character in Belarus. As the presidential aide Sergei Tkachov put it, “today the Belarusian market returned back to the smoking practice of Soviet times”, reports BDG.

The presidential administration didn’t import into the country within the framework of the established quota even one bloc of cigarettes by April 12. In connection with the delay in the price-increase on the imported tobacco, the budget is incurring losses, while the importers can’t sell stuff to their own loss at prices, which remain unchanged since November 2001. As a result, the tobacco import has almost been completely washed out from the market by the cheaper contraband cigarettes. Experts say that this shadow niche, provided they don’t pass any countermeasures against it, may outgrow the level of 3,4thsd cigarettes a year, with the budget losing some 10bln Belarusian rubles.

The Ministry of trade is stepping up desperate measures, which are unlikely to stabilize the situation. To import cigarettes into the trade network they will need extra time. In best case they will appear in the country in the needed amount by early May. What does that mean? The most dangerous thing in the story is that over this month the tobacco contraband, which remains spontaneous for now, will get on a permanent flow and reanimate the long forgotten shadow sector of the Belarusian economy.