Amendments to legislation on tobacco will have unfavorable consequences, experts

25.02.2014 10:08
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2 minute(s)

The amendments to the legislation concerning the regulation of the production and sale of cigarettes will have a number of unfavorable consequences, IPN reports, quoting experts who took part in a TV program.

Analyst Anatolie Golea said the banning of strong, light and slim cigarettes is not a solution to stopping smoking. “Certain risks are faced in such a situation. Those who now smoke weak or slim cigarettes will start to use strong cigarettes. Another part will use contraband cigarettes that may be produced in basements in our country,” he said.

Editor-in-chief of the news agency Infomarket Alexandr Burdeinyi considers that the given changes will generate a reduction of about 50% in the incomes collected into the state budget from the tobacco industry. “The incomes from this sector in 2013 represented 4% of the total state budget revenues, which is the equivalent of 1 billion lei. The revenues in 2014 are projected to rise by 5-6%. This money can be used to cover sector expenses. If the changes are adopted, the revenues will decrease drastically. The amendments must be implemented gradually,” he stated.

Anatolie Golea doubts the necessity of the amendments that ban advertisements in places where cigarettes are sold as the vendors will start to sell cigarettes under the counter.

The provisions will also lead to a decrease in the number of jobs.

“The cigarette selling kiosks will close. Smoking must be reduced, but gradually and in a logical way, after analyzing the consequences for health and the social effects. Many elderly people work as sellers at these kiosk and risk losing their jobs. There are about 1,500 kiosks in towns alone,” said Alexandru Burdeinyi.

The Government approved amendments to the Law on Tobacco and the Code of Administrative Offenses last December and submitted them to Parliament for adoption this month. They ban the sale of slim and mentholated cigarettes, which represent about one third of Moldova’s cigarette market. New rules are introduced as regards the warning about the damage of smoking and smoking in public places.