Finance Minister Ján Počiatek on June 18 submitted a bill that revises the excise taxes on tobacco products as of February 1, 2009 to bring it in line with the European Union's minimum tax burden.
The tobacco excise-tax rate is to go up from the current Sk1.41 per cigarette to Sk1.58 (5.2 euro cents), and from Sk2.1 per cigar to Sk2.45 (8 euro cents).
"This is Slovakia’s last excise-tax increase,” Počiatek wrote in a statement.
During its EU-accession talks, Slovakia requested a grace period for complying with the excise tax. It was agreed that the minimum tax burden for the best-selling price category would amount to 57 percent of the retail price, while the minimum tax burden on 1,000 cigarettes would reach at least €64 (Sk1,939). TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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