Phillip Morris "threatens to close" plant

Phillip Morris International is calling for the recent changes to the law on excises to be nullified, daily Danas writes. According to this newspaper, the company is "weighing all options" and is even mulling shutting down its Serbia plant and moving production to Russia. Phillip Morris "threatens to close" plant Phillip Morris is the majority owner of the Nis Tobacco Industry (DIN). The daily writes that the company will "wait another ten days" for a decision on nullifying the amendments to the excise law, after which it will take "concrete measures". The paper's source stated that importing cigarettes to Serbia from Russia is a better option than from Romania or Greece because there are customs incentives between Russia and Serbia, whereas imports from countries within the CEFTA agreement come with additional duty. The source claims that Phillip Morris and DIN have sent official statements to President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic, warning that there would be great financial damages from the adoption of the amendments to the law for excises. Unofficial estimates predict that some RSD 1-2bn will be lost from the budget, "as will the trust of current and future investors". “There are disagreement within the government, because some ministers believe that the adopted amendments should not be changed. That is probably a results of an increase of lobbying by Predrag Rankovic of Invej Holding, which controls the producer of cheap cigarettes Monus, and which is content with the excise laws,” the anonymous source stated, though he did not want to speculate on the unofficial information that “some politicians were bribed", because "there is no evidence related to that currently”. The source adds that “discontent within Phillip Morris is very high,” because the government violated the agreement it had with the tobacco companies and backing away from the CEFTA action plan, which was adopted by the government and tobacco companies. The source also stated that the “damage to Serbia would be great” because Monus only produces seven percent of the tobacco on the market, while Phillip Morris, BAT and Japan Tobacco cover 90 percent of the market.

Phillip Morris "threatens to close" plant

Phillip Morris is the majority owner of the Niš Tobacco Industry (DIN). The daily writes that the company will "wait another ten days" for a decision on nullifying the amendments to the excise law, after which it will take "concrete measures".

The paper's source stated that importing cigarettes to Serbia from Russia is a better option than from Romania or Greece because there are customs incentives between Russia and Serbia, whereas imports from countries within the CEFTA agreement come with additional duty.

The source claims that Phillip Morris and DIN have sent official statements to President Boris Tadić and Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković, warning that there would be great financial damages from the adoption of the amendments to the law for excises.

Unofficial estimates predict that some RSD 1-2bn will be lost from the budget, "as will the trust of current and future investors".

“There are disagreement within the government, because some ministers believe that the adopted amendments should not be changed. That is probably a results of an increase of lobbying by Predrag Ranković of Invej Holding, which controls the producer of cheap cigarettes Monus, and which is content with the excise laws,” the anonymous source stated, though he did not want to speculate on the unofficial information that “some politicians were bribed", because "there is no evidence related to that currently”.

The source adds that “discontent within Phillip Morris is very high,” because the government violated the agreement it had with the tobacco companies and backing away from the CEFTA action plan, which was adopted by the government and tobacco companies.

The source also stated that the “damage to Serbia would be great” because Monus only produces seven percent of the tobacco on the market, while Phillip Morris, BAT and Japan Tobacco cover 90 percent of the market.