Foundations – The Sponsor First of All

Philip Morris, with British American Tobacco, finances «Italianieuropei» of Massimo D'Alema, while on BAT’s pay sheets, there are also «Formiche», of Follini, and «Magna Carta» of Berlusconi’s senator Quagliarello.

Maglietta di D'Alema con lo sponsor Philip MorrisThe tobacco multinationals have taken the place of the old political currents, and financing a galaxy of foundations and associations, they are conditioning the agenda of Italian politics.

Tracking down an identikit of the sponsors and knowing how much money they hand out to our politicians is not easy. Foundations, in fact, have no obligation to make their bookkeeping and sources of funding public. Read more »

Value Added Tax – British American Tobacco vs. Yesmoke

On Wednesday, October 14th, Yesmoke received notification of the hearing, scheduled for the morning of Friday the 16th in Rome.

Guardia di Finanza The public clarification requested from British America Tobacco in answer to its letter “reserved and confidential”, had arrived, but in the form of a recourse, with the request for the preventive removal of the news article published on October 1st: “BAT, 500 Million of Evaded VAT Discovered by Yesmoke”.

According to BAT, this text is “totally misleading as it attributes absolutely unfounded facts to British American Tobacco Italia".

But what was the sense of a petition to the court? The sentence was already there: it was the opinion of the Revenue Agency - Agenzia delle Entrate, interpellated by Yesmoke.

BAT claimed that the non-payment of VAT by Logista Italia follows, in this case, correct procedures. But this is the exact opposite from what the Revenue Agency affirms. Read more »

Mediaset and Marlboro Advertising. All Paid for, or Free?

Mediaset’s three viewer-record programs are openly in business with Philip Morris.  But does Silvio know what his son, Pier Silvio is doing in the company?

Pier Silvio Berlusconi

Pier Silvio Berlusconi, in charge of the palimpsest and programming coordination of the Mediaset networks

Those programs, which block out the logo on shirts during interviews to not provide free advertising, for Philip Morris reserve treatment of incomparable value, all clearly illegal. Read more »

Cigarettes – 500 million in omitted VAT discovered by Yesmoke

A private company substitutes the State and discovers another of the countless violations, Italian style, worthy of the Guinness Book of Records.

Logista S.p.A. truckThe Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies (Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato) did not correctly regulate the privatization of the processed tobacco distribution sector.

This failure, besides favoring the de facto monopoly of the distributor, Logista Italia S.p.A. owned by a multinational, determined violations of the most elementary fiscal rules.

And considering that Giorgio Tino, director of the AAMS, was a member of Logista’s board of directors … How could they have made such a mistake? Read more »

When Big Tobacco "Goes on Strike", the State Capitulates

Here in our country, there have never been genocides, no one has ever thought of building an atomic bomb, and yet the country of “live and let live”, has been …occupied!

Carro armato con i loghi delle multinazionaliA cartel of foreign companies, some already convicted in Italy for having set up a “cartel”,  has taken over the entire tobacco market - brands, factories and distribution. It can decide the rules of a sector worth 14 billion euro in tax revenues and it can cut off the supply flow at any moment.

Today our leaders are living in a relationship of harmonious friendship with those who are taking the Italians’ money away from them; here is an authentic example of what could happen to us tomorrow.
Read more »

The Codacons – Safeguarding the Health of Big Tobacco

According to the European Union “the Minimum Price of cigarettes protects the cigarette manufacturers’ profits at the cost of the State’s revenue whereas taxation on all cigarettes would have the same effect  on the final price” For this reason, the E.U. has started up legal violation proceedings against Italy.

Carlo Rienzi

Carlo Rienzi

The CODACONS - Coordinamento delle Associazioni per la Difesa dell'Ambiente e dei Consumatori (Coordination of the Associations for the Defence of the  Environment and of Consumers), also seems to want to safeguard the profits of Philip Morris.

In fact, the CODACONS has lined up on the side of Big Tobacco, opposing the European Union and Yesmoke S.p.A. who are appealing against the minimum cigarette price.

“… in the perspective of an ever greater safeguarding of consumers in general and of  juvenile consumers in particular” said the president, Avv. Prof. Carlo Rienzi. Read more »

In Italy, do they smoke Italian fags? Yes, but only "imported" ones

How come cigarettes are produced and new factories are opened in Europe, but not in Italy?

Mappa dell'importazione di sigarette in ItaliaUntil a few years ago, 95% of the cigarettes sold on the Italian market were manufactured in Italy. The Ente Tabacchi Italiano that used to own all the Italian brands even manufactured Marlboros for Philip Morris here, before it was sold to British American Tobacco in 2004.

Today 99% of the cigarettes sold in Italy (including Logista Spa, that handles all the distribution) is the property of a cartel of foreign companies, which have now moved almost all their production into other countries; it is a sector worth 14 billion a year in tax revenues. Read more »

Silvio Garattini – is the Professor not very good at Mathematics?

A year ago Dr. Garattini made a proposal: ”One euro added to every pack, more expensive cigarettes to finance research”. Great! 4.5 billion packs would bring in 4.5 billion euro!

Silvio Garattini

Professor Silvio Garattini

But here is what he is saying today: “Six percent of the smokers would quit if the Minimum Price were raised to 5 euro”. Maybe the professor is not very good at adding and subtracting, because there is a very significant difference between adding one euro to a pack and increasing the Minimum Price.

In the first case, the money goes to the State, in the second, to the manufacturers… Has the professor made other arrangements for  research? Read more »

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