The R.E.F. vs. the Fiscal Appetite

Copertina della rivista “In this phase there is the risk that further price increases, consequent to the growing fiscal appetite, will encourage a shift towards illegal sales channels”; this is written in the introduction of the latest issue.

Let’s be careful! The only publication that analyses the Italian tobacco market, the «Tobacco Observatory», published by the REF (Economic and Financial Research), a reference for “government institutions and organismi” is making a shaky attempt at disinformation. The periodical is officially sponsored by British American Tobacco and its aim is to safeguard the profits of the cigarette manufacturers. It is taking advantage of the incompetence of politicians and inducing the State to give away needed tax income. Read more »

The Theorem of Smuggling

Pistola sopra le banconote di euroLooking ahead to a possible increase of the excise tax on cigarettes, the campaign continues on the “risks” that could derive from such a move. One of these is that Big Tobacco would be obliged to raise its sales prices and this would lead to a growth of smuggling.

In spite of the reassurance of the Guardia di Finanza, of the Ministry of Economic Development and of the AAMS, that speak of Italy as a “happy island” on the smuggling front, for the three multinationals that hold 99% of the Italian market, Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco, for the distributor Logista Italia and for the Italian Tobacconist Federation, the concern is “serious”. Read more »

Tax Revenue – Risk of Disinformation!

Il Sole 24 Ore logo“Be careful about increasing taxes on cigarettes”, warns the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore «it could have depressive effects on production and on demand”.

Seeing that 99% of the cigarettes sold in Italy are manufactured abroad, it is hard to understand what production Il Sole 24 Ore is talking about. Moreover, tax increases on cigarettes do not inevitably generate sales price increases and consequent drops of demand and of tax income.

Greater fiscal pressure on cigarettes would force the producers to raise their sales prices only if they wanted to keep earning their current enormous and unjustifiable profits. Read more »

Tax Revenue – Watch out for the A.A.M.S.!

Raffaele Ferrara, general director of the A.A.M.S.

Raffaele Ferrara, general director of the A.A.M.S. – Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies

Since the 1990s, in the period of the A.A.M.S./E.T.I.* agreement with Philip Morris for the production of Marlboros in Italy, the A.A.M.S. has always worked against increases of fiscal pressure, that is, of the excise aliquot. It has consistently privileged pricing maneuvers that safeguard the profits of the manufactures. Why should it change now?

In that period, the A.A.M.S. was openly acting in the interest of Philip Morris; the other multinationals, that did not sell much in Italy, were still excluded, and they protested, as Yesmoke is doing today.

Today the strategy remains unchanged but the cartel has opened up to take in Japan Tobacco and British American Tobacco. Read more »

Big Tobacco & the AAMS: the Swindle Continues

Stop ai ladri!

STOP THIEF!

On last September 25th, Philip Morris raised the prices of all its products by 10 cents immediately following the increases of Japan Tobacco and British American Tobacco.

This latest of an innumerable series of price rises, which involve 99% of the cigarettes on the Italian market, was not determined by an increase of fiscal pressures, that is, increasing the excise aliquots, but by decisions of the manufacturers to boost their profits.

Since 2005, cigarette producers selling in Italy have earned more and more, thanks, first to the law of the “minimum price” and now to the “minimum tax”. These laws have guaranteed them a profit of at least 380%, and these are resources siphoned off from the State coffers and from the final consumer. Read more »

Slot Machines & Tobacco: the Same Black Hand

Black handNow that the slot machine scandal has broken out, that cost us 98 billion euro, we must not forget the tobacco sector. Like gambling, it is under the control of the AAMS (Azienda Autonoma Monopoli di Stato –Autonomous State Monopolies Agency).

Gianfranco Fini’s man, Alberto Giorgetti, undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance delegated to handle games and tobacco issues, together with Raffaele Ferrara, director general of the AAMS, have done some “very interesting” things, safeguarding the interests of foreign multinationals and damaging the State treasury and Italy’s producers.

First Manlio Contento, then Alberto Giorgetti. Why, since 2001, every time the center-right has made up the government, the responsibility for gaming and tobacco has always been an appanage of the Alleanza Nazionale party? And what a coincidence, Gabriella Alemanno, sister of the A.N. Mayor of Rome, filled the very delicate position of directress of the strategies of the AAMS. Read more »

Lecce: Globalization – the Italian Way

Manifestazione dei lavoratori della BAT di Lecce

Workers of the Lecce Tobacco Plant

According to the director of the Confindustria of Lecce, Antonio Corvino, “We need to individuate a strategy that, first of all, will allow British American Tobacco to reach its objectives… Globalization is not a process that can be stopped… It is all a matter of company autonomy, it has every right to exercise its will.” Anyway we look at it, the Confindustria with its convolutions and so-called promoters of globalization, for some reason has lined up on the side of BAT.

With the liberalization of the market, which all the European countries, except Italy, are promoting, there is more than one business, Italian or foreign, it makes no difference, ready to take up this production. And it might be the Chinese who want to produce here; they are the greatest producers in the world. Read more »

Cigarettes: the Sector is Asking for Legality

Le LeggiWhy are tobacco-processing factories being closed in Italy and their workers laid off? The cigarette market is not feeling the economic crisis. Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco, that hold 99% of the market, bring in profits per pack in Italy considerably higher than those of other European countries, they have no competition and they pay no taxes.

Today no one would invest a euro in the Italian market. However, with the abolition of the minimum price and the safeguarding of free competition as established by the recent European Court sentence, there would not be only these three companies dividing up the market. Read more »

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