Head of FBK Legal's Corporate Practice, Alexander Ermolenko on increasing cigarette prices.

Head of FBK Legal’s Corporate Practice, Alexander Ermolenko comments in his interview to Gazeta.ru upon the news that The Ministry of Finance plan to equal the Russian cigarette prices up with the European. A box will cost about 200 RUR. Annual doubling of excise duty rates is planned. “Tobacco tax is a rather political than economical amount”, Alexander Ermolenko specified. According to him, tobacco excises is like banning or preserving death penalty. “When regulating tobacco sellers authorities do not just top up the budget, but also consider morals. Each country solves this issue in its own way”, Ermolenko noted.