OREANDA-NEWS The register of trading enterprises selling tobacco products can be introduced in the Russian Federation, such an idea is being discussed, Nikita Kuznetsov, Director of the Department for the Development of Domestic Trade of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, said at the round table "Regional tobacco market. Effective tools to combat counterfeiting", which was held as part of the business program of the interregional forum "Days of Retail in the White Sea region".

His words are quoted by the press service of the Small Format Trade Association.

"The idea of a registry is currently being discussed, conditionally - with soft licensing. Probably, we need to approach this seriously and discuss retail so that we have a final verified number of points and their list that sell the appropriate type of product (...). We need to make sure that no sales are carried out outside this register," said the head of the department.

According to Kuznetsov, this is important due to the fact that tobacco products are excisable goods.

Currently, the trade in tobacco products is not licensed.

As Artyom Kiryanov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, stated at the round table, the shortage of excise taxes on classic tobacco products amounts to more than 100 billion rubles per year. "When checking outlets, in 9 out of 10 cases there are significant violations," he said.

According to Irina Bushina, director of the ANO "NNCC" (National Scientific Center of Competencies in the field of combating illicit trafficking in industrial products), the minimum budget losses from illegal tobacco trafficking in the first half of this year amounted to 50.44 billion rubles.

According to the NNCC, the share of illegal tobacco products in the Russian market is 11.3% (in terms of population).