According to a survey by market researcher GfK Hungária, the black market accounts for 12% of tobacco consumption in Hungary, up from 6% two years earlier and 11% last year.

NAV officials seized nearly 85 million illegal cigarettes in the first nine months of this year, up from 70 million in the whole of 2013, as well as 19,000kg of cut tobacco.

Philip Morris spokesman Ferenc Németh argued that upcoming bills on establishing a tobacco wholesale monopoly and on levying a new tax on the tobacco sector will increase the price of tobacco products, thereby boosting the black market.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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