POLAND – SLOVAKIA

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union has agreed to exempt Poland until 2009 from new rules setting higher levels of minimum excise rates on cigarettes when it becomes a Member State, maybe in 2004. A current proposal would raise the minimum threshold to Euro 60 per 1,000 cigarettes from July, maybe doubling cigarette prices in Poland, damaging legitimate sales and reducing tax revenues. The EU has also agreed to exempt Slovakia from the law for five years after it becomes a Member State.



Full access to this article can be arranged with permission from the client that first ordered it. Please contact us to request access. Entries are uploaded to our archive at least one year after being published by a client – free access is restricted to International News Services journalists for background research only. The article date indicates when copy was filed to a client, not when posted to this archive. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.