Cigarettes, oil to be hit by excise increase

This is a joke surely?

Imagine cigarettes going up by 2p in the UK or by a few centimmes in the EU.

And I'm sure this increase in the price of beer is going to hit drinkers hard - not!

I mean including inflation this is hardly going to help fill government coffers is it? In fact in real, adjusted terms I would not be surprised if government revenue is down.

At the same time coffee drinkers are facing much larger increases, where is the logic? Elastic / inelastic demand? I think not.

I feel sorry for those in state hospitals this year. I think the cuts are going to be visible and all because this government is too cowardly to tax citizens sensibly.

What a joke of a government when they introduce something that costs the average Serbian consumer for no benefit at all.

The EU suggests that Serbia implements the SAA unilaterally and this government obediently follows. As far as I can tell, this only benefits the EU and not Serbia.

They try to block Russia's energy deal but are happy to give money away to the EU. What a joke!

ZK I don't know how you managed to turn taxation into a national issue (EU or Russia etc).

I think that we could lay off the national issues on this issue at least, just for a second.

On the topic you raised on a macro level you are right of course. EU countries will benefit from increased exports at a time when exports are going down. On the other hand Serbian consumers (yeah I don't like that word much either) will be able to buy goods produced in EU countries more cheaply. The flip side of that being that demand for Serbian products may be reduced - although in reality many foreign goods such as electrical items have no equivallent Serbian company.

And if you support the NIS Gasprom deal, please give your reasons. My reasoning on this issue has nothing whatever to do with national issues (Russia vs West) and only focussing in Serbian self interest - ie how much will go in the Serbian budget, how many jobs will be created, how much is NIS worth etc....

I honestly don't understand this tribal mentality of Russia good, West bad or West good and Russia bad.

Surely Serbia should act in its own self interest, regardless of whether Russia or say the US is competing for business in our country.

bganon, you obviously read more into what I wrote than I intended.

My point is that I can't seem to find any debate going on regarding this unilateral EU implementation but there was quite a lot of bad press about the Russian deal. Why is that?

This isn't just about NIS but the whole package Russia is offering. We are talking about several hundred million Euros going into Serbia's coffers each year for doing very little.

But as for this EU initiative, Serbians get cheaper EU goods but end up paying for it in other ways. Since I don't drink coffee and beer, smoke or use diesel it really doesn't affect me but that's no reason to keep quiet about this appalling give-away.

This is a joke surely?

Imagine cigarettes going up by 2p in the UK or by a few centimmes in the EU.

And I'm sure this increase in the price of beer is going to hit drinkers hard - not!

I mean including inflation this is hardly going to help fill government coffers is it? In fact in real, adjusted terms I would not be surprised if government revenue is down.

At the same time coffee drinkers are facing much larger increases, where is the logic? Elastic / inelastic demand? I think not.

I feel sorry for those in state hospitals this year. I think the cuts are going to be visible and all because this government is too cowardly to tax citizens sensibly.

What a joke of a government when they introduce something that costs the average Serbian consumer for no benefit at all.

The EU suggests that Serbia implements the SAA unilaterally and this government obediently follows. As far as I can tell, this only benefits the EU and not Serbia.

They try to block Russia's energy deal but are happy to give money away to the EU. What a joke!

ZK I don't know how you managed to turn taxation into a national issue (EU or Russia etc).

I think that we could lay off the national issues on this issue at least, just for a second.

On the topic you raised on a macro level you are right of course. EU countries will benefit from increased exports at a time when exports are going down. On the other hand Serbian consumers (yeah I don't like that word much either) will be able to buy goods produced in EU countries more cheaply. The flip side of that being that demand for Serbian products may be reduced - although in reality many foreign goods such as electrical items have no equivallent Serbian company.

And if you support the NIS Gasprom deal, please give your reasons. My reasoning on this issue has nothing whatever to do with national issues (Russia vs West) and only focussing in Serbian self interest - ie how much will go in the Serbian budget, how many jobs will be created, how much is NIS worth etc....

I honestly don't understand this tribal mentality of Russia good, West bad or West good and Russia bad.

Surely Serbia should act in its own self interest, regardless of whether Russia or say the US is competing for business in our country.

bganon, you obviously read more into what I wrote than I intended.

My point is that I can't seem to find any debate going on regarding this unilateral EU implementation but there was quite a lot of bad press about the Russian deal. Why is that?

This isn't just about NIS but the whole package Russia is offering. We are talking about several hundred million Euros going into Serbia's coffers each year for doing very little.

But as for this EU initiative, Serbians get cheaper EU goods but end up paying for it in other ways. Since I don't drink coffee and beer, smoke or use diesel it really doesn't affect me but that's no reason to keep quiet about this appalling give-away.