British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and Philip Morris demand the postponing by 6-month deferment of production compliance to the new provisions of tobacco Directive.
They show that the changes involve large investments in purchasing machinery, equipment and materials.
“The lack of law transposing the tobacco Directive and technical specifications for production and marketing will block the functioning of the legal market,” the companies show in a joint statement.
Several EU countries have resorted to this solution (eg. Poland and Denmark) to not affect the legal market and budget revenues.
“The postponement concerns only the manufacturing term with the continued compliance with the “pure market” required by the Directive, namely May 20, 2017.
The producers’ representatives, meaning 98 percent of the local cigarettes market state that they want to comply with the Directive and have officially requested in the past year and a half, its transposition.
State’s average monthly loss, unless the delay is not agreed, reached to about EUR 230 million, accounting for taxes and contributions. Also, the illegal trade, which reached to 17.5 percent in November 2015, will flourish given that the legal products will no longer be valid, with cost and fighting efforts difficult to quantify, tobacco manufacturers warn.
In 2014, the tobacco industry has brought to the budget over EUR 2.7 billion, being the second biggest contributor after the oil sector.
In April 2014, the European Union (EU) adopted the EU Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) (TPD). EU Member States have until 20 May 2016 to implement the TPD’s provisions at national level.