Philip Morris backs minimum price

Cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris agrees with the introduction of a minimum reference price for cigarettes, feeling this move does not go against competition regulations. This is what Peter Imre, the company”s corporate affairs director stated on Tuesday. “We will back any regulation that results in a reduction of juvenile smoking, and equalisation through the creation of an equal excise-levying environment for all producers,” Imre said. The proposed modifications to the Fiscal Code include a minimum reference price for cigarettes of 3.15 RON, the equivalent of 90% of the price of the best-selling category of cigarettes. The price of cigarettes on the market will not be allowed to drop below this level. Imre feels the introduction of the minimum reference price will solve the Health Ministry”s problem of reducing the consumption of tobacco and will make it easier for the Finance Ministry to collect higher taxes. “If the minimum reference price is not set objectively and unarbitrarily by the government, it will produce effects. If it is left up to the will of producers and is set subjectively, it will not achieve its goals,” Imre said. He added the regulations in the draft modifications to the Fiscal Code were set objectively, because they do not favour any producer. ZF