Ombudsman: Some 40% of all tobacco products sold in Russia are counterfeit

About 35-40 percent of tobacco products sold on the Russian market are illegally produced, Russian business ombudsman Boris Titov said in an annual report to the Russian president, TASS reports.

“According to most cautious estimates, the share of illegal products has already reached 35-40 percent, which deals a serious blow to the budget of the Russian Federation, not to mention the quality of the falsified products and the scope of illegal production,” the report reads.

The business ombudsman suggested creating a unified state mechanism to control the tobacco market, similar to the Unified State Automatic Information System for alcohol products (EGAIS), developed by the Department for State Regulation of Economy and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.

https://www.rbth.com/news/2017/05/24/ombudsman-some-40-of-all-tobacco-products-sold-in-russia-are-counterfeit_769026