One third of cigarettes in Bulgaria are 'illegal'

Every third cigarette smoked in Bulgaria is illegal, according to the tobacco industry, because no excise tax has been paid.

Officials from four international tobacco companies and the Bulgarian monopoly have handed interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov a report explaining that illegal cigarettes – normally smuggled into the country or manufactured in clandestine facilities – account for 34 percent of local tobacco consumption.


No tax has been paid on one third of cigarettes smoked in Bulgaria. (Photo: lanier67)

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The market research was presented by the local offices of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco and the Bulgarian company Bulgartabac.

The treasury is expected to lose the equivalent of €350 million this year just to illegal cigarettes, according to the finance ministry.

The industry carried out its research in 21 Bulgarian cities. Illegal cigarettes amounted to 50 percent of total consumption in the western towns of Pernik and Kyustendil, the survey showed.

Bulgaria is the second heaviest smoking country in the EU after Greece and consumes 350 million illegal packs of cigarettes every year, according to the study.