Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan imported tobacco and tobacco products worth over $73.2 million in January to July, 2018.

This figure is 16.67 percent or $14.6 million less than in 2017, according to the data of the State Customs Committee.

Over the past seven months of this year, imports of tobacco and tobacco products accounted for 1.27 percent of total imports.

In this period, tobacco and its industrial substitutes were exported from Azerbaijan in the amount of $6.4 million, which is 13.13 percent or $96,802 less in the annual comparison.

Exports of tobacco and its substitutes accounted for 1.27 percent of total exports.

Currently, the country eyes to minimize the import of tobacco products. To this end, the manufacturer of tobacco products Tabaterra will build a factory of tobacco products in the Sumgayit Chemical Industrial Park. Taking into account the market demand, the factory, capable of producing 10 billion cigarettes, is able to fully meet the country’s demand for tobacco products.

Smoking is common throughout the world, and getting people out of tobacco dependence today is becoming a priority for many nations.

Earlier, country manager of the World Bank (WB) Naveed Hassan Naqvi repeatedly made proposals to the Azerbaijani government to increase excise taxes on tobacco products and thereby, raising prices, to limit the population’s access to cigarettes. In his opinion, this will increase revenues to the state budget, and will positively affect the health of the nation, limiting the number of smokers.

The Azerbaijani government heard calls from the WB experts and increased excise taxes on manufactured tobacco products in the country.

Currently, over 10 billion cigarettes are consumed in the country. Of these, only 1.6 billion are produced in Azerbaijan, while 9 billion cigarettes are being imported.

The price of a pack of cigarettes in Azerbaijan in average amounted at $1.2, while it is $3 in Turkey, $3.5 in Russia, and $4 in Poland.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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