Minus 5 billion UAH from the budget during the war

Ukraine should increase excise taxes on tobacco products. This is our commitment to the EU, which is enshrined in the Directive. According to this document, until 2025, excise taxes on cigarettes, cigarillos and tobacco products for electric heating (TIEN) must be at least 90 euros per 1000 cigarettes.

Currently, there are five bills on raising excise taxes in the Verkhovna Rada. Among them is the Cabinet of Ministers (#11090), which is being actively discussed and pushed through.

But he's in trouble.

The fact is that Ukraine took a very progressive step several years ago - it equalized excise taxes on tobacco products for the so-called TIENs with excise taxes on classic cigarettes. This didn't happen before.

Thanks to this decision, over the past 2023, budget revenues from TIENs amounted to UAH 14.4 billion, and compared to UAH 1.7 billion in 2020, this is a colossal increase.

But the Ministry of Finance, which is the author of the bill from the Cabinet of Ministers, decided to separate these excise taxes and give preference to the so-called “IQOS”. For classic cigarettes, set the minimum excise tax fixed with the EU to 90 euros, and for IQOS - 72 euros! If this is accepted, the Ukrainian budget will lose UAH 5 billion annually during the war!

These 5 billion UAH will mainly be donated to the tobacco company Philip Morris, which occupies 80% of the TIEN market with its IQOS.

And the most shameful thing is that Finance Minister Sergei Marchenko is doing this for those whom the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP) has officially recognized as an international sponsor of the war. Philip Morris did not leave Russia and is now the largest international taxpayer there who goes to kill Ukrainians.