Tiraspol parliament halves excises on imported cigarettes, Shevchuk disagrees

The legislative body of the Transnistrian region has cut in half excises on imported cigarettes beginning with next year, Novy Region reported. In explaining the measure, the Supreme Soviet noted that excises represent an indirect tax whose burden falls on final consumers. However, Transnistria's leader Yevgeny Shevchuk said he intends to veto the measure. In particular, he argued that a cut as small as 10 percent would mean that the budget would lose revenues of 100 million rubles ($9 million). “This is a rather large amount. Earlier we planned to channel these funds into gradually raising salaries for public employees, health care professionals, teachers, and the law-enforcement”, said Shevchuk. On the western side of the Nistru, the authorities are pursuing a policy of gradually increasing tobacco excises to the level of European ones, with one goal being to reduce the number of smokers by 30 percent by 2016.