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Italiano Watch out! Scam under way!
On last December 17th, the government gave its preliminary approval to a plan for a legislative decree to implement European Community Directive 2010/12/CE regarding the structure and the aliquots of the excises applied to processed tobacco products, and to align current Italian regulations with the sentence of the European Court of Justice that has condemned Italy for applying a minimum price on cigarettes.
Actually, what we are seeing is a coarse attempt to evade this sentence, to the satisfaction of foreign tobacco multinationals and to the detriment of the tax revenues of the State and of national cigarette producers.
According to the Community directives and the sentence of the European Court of Justice, raising prices to safeguard the public health must be done by increasing the fiscal burden, not by setting up barriers to free competition, that only serve to protect the profits of foreign manufacturers, giving away to them potential income of the State.
The Finance Legislation Office (Ufficio Legislativo Finanze) of the Ministry of the Treasury, on the contrary, has decided to not comply with this judgment, blatantly violating the sentence of the Court.
Yesmoke has contacted the Ministry of the Treasury, pointing out to Italo Volpe, the head of the Finance Legislation Office, that respecting a sentence means abrogating all the regulations that elude the judgment. Furthermore, a law decree passed on 23 June 2010, the day before the sentence of the European Court of Justice, that calls for a tax that would penalize cigarettes sold at a price below the current minimum price, besides being unconstitutional, is an obvious action of the lobbies of Big Tobacco, a measure that damages our country and subjects it to ridicule in Europe.
Italo Volpe, head of the Finance Legislation Office - Ministry of the Treasury
If the Court sentence were respected, manufacturers could lower their prices without damaging the State revenue, and a price competition would be created that would permit the State to increase its tax income. There is an ample margin to modify this excise tax; in Italy, in fact, the aliquot has been blocked since 2004 at 58.5%, while for example, in France it has recently been raised to 64%.
The Legislative Decree was submitted for parliamentary opinion in the drafting stage to the Finance and Treasury Commissions, and in the observation stage to the Budget Commission, and to the Commissions for European Union Policies and Constitutional Affairs.
The members of these Commissions, belonging to all the political spectrum, have for some time been sensitized by Yesmoke on the problem. Is it a lost cause? We will know the position of each as we follow the events step by step.
Yesmoke Writes to the Members of the Commissions
Settimo Torinese, 13 January 2011.
Subject: project for a legislative decree entitled: "Attuazione della direttiva 2010/12/CE, recante modifica delle direttive 92/79/CEE, 92/80/CEE, 95/59/CE e 2008/118/CE per quanto concerne la struttura e le aliquote delle accise che gravano sui tabacchi lavorati" … (Implementation of directive 2010/12/CE, that introduces changes to directives 92/79/CEE, 92/80/CEE, 95/59/CE and 2008/118/CE regulating the structure and the aliquots of the excises imposed on processed tobacco products…). Government Act submitted to Parliamentary Opinion no. 316)
Dear Sirs ......
On behalf of Yesmoke Tobacco S.p.A., the first private Italian factory for the manufacture of cigarettes, I am writing to you to inform you of the serious irregularities present in the above legislative decree that has been assigned in the consultation stage to the VI Commission of which you are a member. (Act no. 316).
The Legislative Decree, besides damaging the State revenues and Italian manufacturers and benefiting foreign multinational producers who do not manufacture and do not pay taxes in Italy, does not conform the regulation in force (D.L. 26/10/1995, no. 504 - TUA) with the Community Directive 2010/12/CE and the sentence of the European Court of Justice of 24 June 2010, which condemned the Italian Republic (suit C-571/2008).
Documents
- Decreto legislativo preliminare – 17 dicembre 2010
- Direttiva comunitaria 2010/12/UE – 16 febbraio 2010
- Ricorso alla Corte di Giustizia Europea (C-571/08) – 22 dicembre 2008
- Sentenza della Corte di Giustizia europea – 24 giugno 2010
- Lettera inviata dalla Yesmoke a Italo Volpe – 2 luglio 2010
- Lettera inviata da Italo Volpe alla Yesmoke – 7 settembre 2010
- Risposta della Yesmoke a Italo Volpe – 7 settembre 2010
- Letter from Yesmoke to the Members of the Commissions – January 4, 2011
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