site.btaIllicit Cigarette Market Share Takes Up to 20-25% of Total Tobacco Products Consumption Since Spring of 2014, Expert Says

Illicit Cigarette Market Share Takes Up to 20-25%  of Total Tobacco Products Consumption Since Spring of 2014, Expert Says


Sofia, December 25 (BTA) - The sustainable growth of the illicit
cigarette market in Bulgaria has reached 20-25 per cent of the
total consumption of tobacco products since the spring of 2014,
Tihomir Bezlov of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD)
told BTA in an interview.

The Centre presented an analysis to BTA, which shows that the
total revenue of the black market for cigarettes reached 500
million leva in 2010, which constituted 16-18 per cent of the
legal market, valued at 2,417 million leva. The illicit market's
share in-kind took up to 30-40 per cent of the total tobacco
products market volume.

Between 2009 and 2010 illicit cigarettes have become the fastest
growing market of organized crime, the experts say. According
to them, two main criminal threats are stemming from this. The
first one is the exceptionally fast growth - the volume triples
in the course of two years and becomes a new determining source
of income for organized crime, thus changing the whole structure
of this country's criminal market. The second threat is
connected to the criminal structures. A huge infrastructure of
regular buyers, vendors and sustainable internal supply channels
of illegal cigarettes and tobacco has developed in two years,
the analysis shows.

According to a CSD study, the financial damages caused by the
illicit trade of tobacco products have increased significantly
in the past 15 years because of the growing excise duty revenues
in the State Budget. In view of the social damages, the illicit
cigarette market creates permanent employment for around 15,000
people across the country, who annually sell around 140 million
packs of cigarettes, which causes the budget to lose between
400 and 500 million leva.

A survey conducted by an independent market research agency
shows that the consumption of illegal cigarettes in the second
quarter of 2014 has reached an average of 20 per cent across the
country. The highest levels were observed in the southern
cities of Sliven, Svilengrad, Sandanski, Pazardjik and Plovdiv.