The government adopted a regulation at today’s session that increases excise duties on cigarettes and fine-cut tobacco, which will soon result in an average price increase of one kuna for a pack of cigarettes.
Finance Minister Slavko Linić stated that the fixed excise duty remains at 180 kuna for 1000 pieces of cigarettes, while the variable part, which is determined as a percentage of the retail price, increases from the previous 33 percent to 36 percent of the retail price.
This means that the price of a pack of cigarettes will increase on average by one kuna, except for the cheapest cigarettes, which will rise slightly more as the government also raises the minimum excise duty to 486 kuna for 1000 pieces of cigarettes.
Linić warned that this is not the end of the increase in excise duties on cigarettes, as Croatia still lags behind the European minimum excise duties.
By the middle of next year, Croatia must align with the EU Directive that sets the average excise duty at 64 euros for 1000 pieces of cigarettes, which means further increases in excise duties, and then there will also be a larger increase in the prices of the most expensive cigarettes.
In addition to the lowest excise duty, we will also need to establish the minimum price of a pack of cigarettes to more effectively combat the dumping sale of cigarettes in Croatia, where some sellers sell mid-range cigarettes at the lowest prices just to capture the Croatian market, announced Linić.
The regulation also raises the excise duty for fine-cut tobacco from the current 234 kuna per kilogram to 325 kuna per kilogram. The new excise duty amounts come into effect on the day the regulation is published in ‘Narodne novine’.
