The tobacco multinationals created, and have supported since 2005, a system that has made them rich at the expense of the country, and they have not realised yet that this system cannot continue.
Alberto Giorgetti, Finance Undersecretary
Instead of modifying the system to adapt it to the new European Community directives, the tobacco multinationals, backed in the Government, by Gianfranco Fini’s man Alberto Giorgetti, have shown how unprepared they are. They have exceeded the limits of a lobby that is now falling apart, a lobby that the country must finally get rid of.
Italy’s totally unacceptable law decree no. 94 of 23/7/2010, devised at the last moment and hastily converted into law, created conditions that are forcing politicians to finally bring order back to the entire tobacco taxation legislation.
To guarantee tax revenue in the coming years or to increase it, from now on, the Government can only regularly raise the aliquot of the excises, and the cigarette manufacturers will have to give up part of their unjustifiable profits. Read more »
The «tassa minima» - minimum tax - on cigarettes, a product of Gianfranco Fini’s supporters of “Fare Futuro”* is the only tax in the world that is absolutely impossible to pay.
Inventing a fake tax to leave everything just as it was before and not increasing taxes on the multinational tobacco manufacturers is a servile act that goes beyond all limits. Read more »
It all started in early July with British American Tobacco; the company brought down its prices of Lucky Strikes and Rothmans by 20 cents.
“Taking advantage of a recent decision of the European Court of Justice - wrote Le Parisienne - some brands have lowered their price by 20 or 25 cents a pack.”
The French State announced that it intended to increase the taxes on cigarettes so that the prices would return to what they were before. In this way, the State could earn more on a pack of Lucky Strikes and BAT would earn less. Read more »
Italy’s minimum price of cigarettes has been abolished, as the sentence of the European Court of Justice ordered. But the Italian State Monopolies Agency - Azienda Autonoma Monopoli di Stato - has refused to give Yesmoke, that has made the request, authorization to lower its prices.
“On this question, - the AAMS points out - article 39quater, parag. 2 of legislative decree 26 October 1995, no. 504, and subsequent amendments and integrations states that requests of this nature must be accompanied, in relation to the sales volumes of each product, by a report representing the economic and financial consequences of the proposed variation”. Read more »
The latest sting, called «tassa minima» - minimum tax - is a tax on cigarettes that no one will pay. For the joy of Big Tobacco, the added income for the State will be zero.
On the contrary, the “minimum excise” indicated by the European Union would bring an additional 900 million euro into the State coffers every year without disrupting the tobacco price lists.
With the “minimum excise”, the prices in tobacco shops of the most expensive cigarettes would stay the same, while the prices of the cheaper brands (MS, Diana, Winston, Pall Mall etc.) might stay the same, or increase just slightly, at the discretion on the manufacturer. Read more »
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