According a research of empty cigarette packets, a third of tobacco products consumed in Lithuania might be smuggled.
"The smuggling volume in Lithuania remains the second highest in Europe and went up by 0.3 percentage points to 29.6 percent in the second half of this year, year-on-year," Laurynas Bučalis, the head of corporate affairs at Philip Morris Baltic, said at a press conference in Klaipėda on Thursday.
According to the research, the illegal market is dominated by Belarusian packets (75 percent), with most of the empty packets coming from Minsk and Fest cigarettes produced in Grodno tobacco factory.
The research was carried out in 20 cities in Lithuania, 5,800 empty packets discarded in public places were collected. Rural areas were not covered in the research.
According to calculations made by the National Association of Tobacco Producers, the smuggling level will deprive the state budget of 250 million litas (EUR 72.5m) in excise duty and 69 million litas in value-added tax, Klaipėda County Association of Employers has said.
Aras Mileška, the head of the association, said the scope of smuggled cigarettes may expand further, if the Tobacco Products Directive, proposed by the European Commission, is put into practice. It is aimed at banning sales of slim and mint cigarettes in EU countries.
"A survey showed that a ban of such cigarettes will push more than 77 percent of consumers in Lithuania to look for them on the black market," Mileška said.
The level of smuggled cigarettes peaked in 2010, the black market then accounted for over 40 percent of the total tobacco market.
