Contraband on the run

The volume of contraband cigarettes, including counterfeit products, entering Estonia decreased by 21 percent last year, according to an Eesti Rahvusringhääling [Estonian Public Broadcasting] story.
At the same time the legal cross-border trade in cigarettes increased by 35 percent.
These figures were said to have come from a report of a study conducted by KPMG for the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI).
The study apparently cited strong border controls and the ‘work of the security authorities’ as reasons for the fall in the illegal trade.
The report said that, compared to the situation in 2013, the contraband market in cigarettes had fallen from 350 million to 180 million cigarettes.
Despite this fall, the report says that state revenues would be better off to the tune of €26 million if contraband sales could be converted into sales of licit products.
Seventy-seven percent of the contraband cigarettes that reach Estonia originate in Russia and Belarus, from where the best-known brands are Bayron and NZ.
Although contraband volumes continue to decrease, legal cross-border trade from which the state does not receive tax income has increased by 35 percent. Between 2016 and 2017, the number of cigarettes brought from Latvia legally doubled.