Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 21 / Trend A. Taghiyeva /
The Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) member-states must unify tax rates on imports of tobacco products, Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek made this statement, Cihan agency said on Wednesday.
"Taking into account that the cost of one pack of cigarettes in Turkey is $4.5 and in some BSEC countries - $1-1.5, the unification of tax rates must be conducted to bring the prices on tobacco products in the BSEC countries to conformity," Simsek said.
He added that these measures can reduce the harm from smoking [increasing the prices on imported cigarettes can reduce the demand for them] and the saved money can be directed to develop other spheres in the countries.
As an example, Simsek named Ukraine. It achieved increasing the revenues from taxes on tobacco products from $320 million to $1.9 billion during 2007-2011 due to the changes in tax system.
The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Organization is an intergovernmental organization consisting of 12 countries of the Black Sea Coast and the Balkans. BSEC was founded on May 1, 1999 on the basis of the Treaty on the Black Sea Economic Cooperation on June 25, 1992. Member countries are Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.