An excise tax has been in effect on electronic cigarettes since January 1, 2024, but it seems that the Ministry of Finance did not think about health, but only about the budget.

“Under the current regulatory conditions, we found that the same excise duty is paid for the same amount of nicotine liquid, for example, by both operators selling nicotine liquid with a nicotine concentration of 20% and economic operators selling nicotine liquid with a concentration nicotine 50%,” the Chamber of Fiscal Consultants (CCF) addressed the ministry.

Such an applicable regime gives preference to those economic operators who sell liquid with nicotine in the highest concentration, the organization says.

“We believe that this method of taxation is completely contrary to the perspective of public health, which undoubtedly should take into account the non-harmonized regulation of excise duties for products with a certain degree of risk, however low,” the CCF said. .

The proposal of the fiscal consultants is for the Ministry to use the method of calculating the excise tax on alcoholic beverages.

Considering the fact that the nicotine used in the manufacturing process is diluted and therefore the concentration is never 100%, there is quite a large variation in the liquid nicotine product market in terms of the concentration of nicotine used, the same method of calculation can be adopted.

“Similarly, for nicotine-free liquid, the excise duty calculation we believe should be on the amount of nicotine substitute, not all ingredients contained in a product called “nicotine-free liquid,” which is actually now subject to excise duty in its entirety. “, the message says.

Changes may be governed by the rules of application.

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