The government of Montenegro will increase the excise duty on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products as of Feb. 1, 2024, to align its taxes with EU standards, reports SeeNews.
The specific component will be raised to €50.50 ($55.25) per 1,000 cigarettes from €49, while the proportional component will remain unchanged.
Excise duty on smokeless tobacco products will increase to €190 euro from €145.
A similar increase is anticipated to take effect in July.
Montenegro increased the excise duty on cigarettes, tobacco and e-cigarettes effective Jan. 1, according to SeeNews.
Duty increased from €44 ($46.71) per 1,000 cigarettes to €47.50 per 1,000 cigarettes. Cut tobacco duty increased to €55 from €50, and smokeless tobacco duty increased to €145 from €100.
Montenegro’s outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic has accused the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of maintaining ties to tobacco smugglers, reports Balkan Insights.
During a parliamentary Security and Defense Council session on Oct. 17, Abazovic claimed that three major tobacco smuggling groups operate in the country, at least one of which is linked to the DPS.
Abazovic urged prosecutors to investigate his claims, adding that he would “self-arrest” if his assertions proved false.
Since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the Port of Bar has become a center for cigarette smuggling from where imported tobacco is re-exported and cigarettes made in Montenegro are shipped.
Abazovic said the smugglers had the political support of current President Milo Djukanovic and his DPS, which held power for almost three decades.
In recent years, Montenegrin authorities have seized hundreds of tons of smuggled cigarettes and more than two tons of cocaine in Bar. Earlier this month, the head of Montenegro’s Customs Office resigned after being linked to tobacco theft in Niksic.
Rade Milosevic, head of Montenegro’s Customs Office, resigned after an investigation launched by the Special State Prosecution into the tobacco theft in the town of Niksic, reports Balkan Insight.
Milosevic was questioned by police after €1 million ($971,805) worth of tobacco was stolen from a factory in Niksic, where it was supposed to be destroyed.
“I decided to take this action in order to relieve the government, the Customs Office and myself personally of the pressure. I am convinced that my work did not violate the law, but the media and a political hunt were aimed at discrediting me,” Milosevic said.
“It [the hunt] was designed and instructed by certain interest groups threatened by my conscientious and professional work,” he added.
The Special State Prosecutor’s Office stated that Customs officials, without adequate security measures, took over a truck of cigarettes intended for destruction. The truck never made it to its destination at the Mai-rai factory. Police later found the truck hidden in Podgorica, the capital. Customs officers Elvir Adrovic and Milutin Pejovic were arrested.
“I would be very unpleasantly surprised if Milosevic made this kind of oversight,” said outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic. “He explained to me how the system works, but the authorities will investigate whether there is anything else there.”
Opposition and civic organizations called for Milosevic’s dismissal, but Abazovic urged prosecution to fully investigate the matter first.
Earlier this year, Abozovic suggested tobacco smuggling groups contributed to the no-confidence vote that brought him down in mid-August.
Montenegro’s outgoing prime minister, Dritan Abazovic, urged the state prosecutor to investigate tobacco smuggling, claiming that organized crime groups contributed to the no-confidence vote that brought him down in mid-August, reports Balkan Insight.
Abazovic provided the prosecutor’s office with documents detailing schemes and naming individuals. According to the outgoing prime minister, cigarette smugglers have been funding political groups to further their causes. “I expect an avalanche to be triggered,” Abazovic told reporters on Sept. 5. “I had to show the roadmap of the tobacco smuggling in Montenegro.”
In May 2019, a probe by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network showed how Montenegro had become a hub of global tobacco smuggling, funneling millions of counterfeit cigarettes into the EU with “ghost” ships, shell companies and forged paperwork.
The Port of Bar is reportedly at the center of this illicit trade. In several large-scale operations in recent years, Montenegro police and customs seized hundreds of tons of smuggled cigarettes and more than two tons of cocaine in the port.
Top officials are rumored to be complicit in the schemes.
In April, Montenegrin police arrested Vesna Medenica, former head of the supreme court, on charges of illegal activities that included drug trafficking and tobacco smuggling.