Biznes wrote that the excise stamps of other countries must now be declared as securities when crossing the border and, according to tobacco producers, a license is needed for them to find their way into Russia, which may take months to obtain.
The paper reported that theoretically the restriction imposed by a government decision, which comes into effect on September 11, applies to all Russian excisable exports, but it will really only concern tobacco producers. In this industry alone, the excise stamps of other countries are pasted on directly at factories, and the stamps themselves are brought into Russia from an importing country.
Market players are exasperated. Sergei Shelekhov, president of the Grandtabak Tobacco Distributors Association, said: "On the one hand, they [the authorities] talk about liberalization, and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry abolishes tobacco licensing. On the other, they introduce restrictions, which add neither to quality nor to the budget. All this is only complicating things."
Sergei Filippov, deputy director general of the Tabakprom Tobacco Producers Association, also said it was wrong to list excise stamps as securities. "Stamps are not traded in Russia, they are just put on cigarette packages and sent back."
Several major companies have simultaneously said they are considering moving the production of exported cigarette brands to other countries. Vadim Botsan-Kharchenko, corporate director of Japan Tobacco Int., said that practically every major cigarette exporter had operations in Commonwealth of Independent State countries and might move their business there.
Vladimir Aksyonov, corporate director of British American Tobacco Rossiya, said it was already the second problem affecting cigarette exports from Russia. "We are constantly having problems with VAT rebates, even after court rulings," he told Biznes.
