Excise duties on cigarettes, sugary products, cocoa and ice cream, carbonated drinks, tobacco products, carbonated drinks with added sugar, beer, and fermented milk carbonated drinks are most likely not going to be increased.
As reported by the publicationDan, this is good news for companies involved in the production and sale of these products, but not for the Ministry of Finance, which had planned to raise excise revenues by 16.8 million euros by the end of the year.
On May 14, the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare (MFB), headed by Milojko Spajić, submitted to parliament the proposedamendments to the Excise Tax Law, but this law was not considered.
After the budget proposal was presented, there was a lot of discussion in the Assembly about excise duties, and most MPs said that this was not a very good move and that it could easily happen that excise revenues would fall after the increase. They noted that this was three years ago, when excise duties on cigarettes were raised.
Consumers also complained about the planned excise increase, because it would lead to higher prices for cigarettes, carbonated drinks, and ice cream.