Cheap smokes to become a thing of the past: EU
The days of taxed-to-the-hilt smokers bulk-buying cigarettes in cheap eastern European countries could be numbered following an agreement between European Union finance ministers on Tuesday.
Smokers in a many northern and western European countries have long complained of relatively high prices for their tobacco fix, in some cases such as Britain nearly doubled once excise rates are added in.
That in turn has triggered huge legal and black-market overseas trade amid an explosion in budget travel over the past decade.
However, ministers finally brokered a compromise deal in Brussels that will see minimum excise rates increased across the 27 EU member states by January 1, 2014, from 64 euros (96 dollars) per 1,000 cigarettes to 90 euros. . . .
A transitional period will apply for countries that have only recently or yet to raise prices to those rates.
That means smokers will still have access to cheap smokes until 1 January, 2018, in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.
