VILNIUS - Lithuania's Customs Department and State Border Guard Service are boosting preparations to fight the smuggling of cigarettes from neighboring states following a March 1 increase in tobacco excise tax rates. "Our services have been preparing for such changes. We anticipate a possible increase in contraband activity," Jonas Miskinis, deputy director general of the Customs Department said in a briefing on March 1.
Close to 3 million packs of contraband cigarettes were confiscated by border guards last year, mainly at Lithuania's borders with Belarus and Russia's Kaliningrad region, Miskinis said. Approximately 2.5 million additional packs were seized by the Customs Department.
But officials predicted that the figures may grow this year, pointing to the fact that nearly 1 million packs of cigarettes were confiscated in the two first months of 2007 alone.
"One pack of cigarettes brings some 2 - 3 litas (0.58 - 0.87 euros) profit for the smuggler," said Aidenas Karpus, director of the Customs Department's criminal division.
The potential profits will now be even greater, according to Karpus, as the 30 percent increase in excise tax in Lithuania will add some 0.5 litas to the price of a cigarette pack.
"Some 1.3 billion cigarettes are brought to Kaliningrad from Russia, but only small part of them remain there. If they were all smoked in the region, every Kaliningrad inhabitant including newborns would have to be smoking without any break," Karpus said.
Lithuania is increasing the excise tax on tobacco to bring it in line with European Union norms. The tax will increase every year until 2010, when it is expected to reach the minimal EU tariff, which is currently almost double the Lithuanian rate.
Karpus also noted that Lithuania is by no means the final destination for contraband cigarettes coming from Kaliningrad.
"They continue on to Great Britain and Ireland, where we have Lithuanian communities," he said.
The officials noted that smugglers were also preparing for the excise tax hike, pointing to a recent operation where more than 100,000 packs of cigarettes were seized, half of them at the facilities of Lithuanian Public Television and Radio.
Border guards first detained a van that was carrying 50,000 packs marked with Russian excise duty stamps, and later found another 73,000 packs stored in the facilities owned by the broadcaster.
State television's administration claimed it knew nothing about the use of its facilities to stash the contraband, adding it never suspected the employee responsible, who had been administrating the building for more than 30 years.
