The situation caused by the coronavirus in Bosnia and Herzegovina has negatively affected a number of industries, but not the trade-in cigarettes and other tobacco products, but it is, in fact, growing.
As confirmed to eKapija business portal, in March this year, the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of BiH issued excise stamps for cigarettes and tobacco with a total value of 134.7 million BAM, while the value in the same month last year was much lower, or 92.2 million BAM.
For now, it is difficult to say what influenced the increase in the demand for cigarettes, but it is assumed that the smokers made stocks.
It is certain that stocks were created in the first weeks of March, but it is also certain that more people smoke when we are at home than at work, according to the consumer protection association.
“A lot of people are not at work now and they do not have that restriction that they may have had at work. When you work in a machine factory, you certainly can’t go out every ten minutes to light a cigarette. Many did not work, they were at home, where they drank coffee, so the consumption of cigarettes was higher,” said Murisa Maric, executive director of the Association of Citizens DON Prijedor.
As confirmed by Ratko Kovacevic, Head of the Department for Communications and International Cooperation in the ITA BiH, for three months in 2020, when it comes to cigarettes and tobacco, excise stamps were issued for a total amount of about 325.6 million BAM, and in the first quarter of last year, the amount of about 277.6 million BAM was recorded.
