Law takes effect: Tobacco more expensive from August 1st

Amendments to the Law on Excise Duties, which define a new way of taxing rolling and pipe tobacco, cigars and cigarillos, will take effect on August 1st and represent a continuation of the harmonization of excise policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the excise policy on tobacco products in the European Union, reports the Patria News Agency.

The aforementioned amendments to the law provide, among other things, for a different method of determining the excise duty amount on pipe tobacco, and stipulate that the excise duty on pipe tobacco for 2014 will amount to 80 KM per kilogram.

- Taxpayers and other persons engaged in the trade of tobacco products, i.e., those engaged in the trade of cigars, cigarillos, and pipe tobacco, are obliged to inventory the stocks of these tobacco products on the day the law takes effect and submit the inventory lists to the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO) within seven days. Taxpayers and other persons engaged in the trade of tobacco products are also obliged to report new retail prices to the UIO within seven days of the inventory being completed – stated the Indirect Taxation Authority.

They further state that all persons engaged in the trade of cigars, cigarillos, and pipe tobacco are obliged to calculate excise duty on the existing stocks determined in the inventory lists according to the new Law, and within 10 days of submitting the inventory lists, pay the difference between the newly calculated and previously paid excise duty into the UIO's Single Account.

This law equalizes the prices of tobacco, cigars, and cigarillos with the prices of cigarettes.