Germany braces itself for increased tobacco smuggling once EU accession kicks in

The reason being that higher German excise levels mean that a pack of cigarettes in that country costs over EUR3.5, compared to just EUR1.5 here, and this difference in price is not set to narrow until Poland introduces the EU excise tax levels in four years' time. As a result, the Germans estimate that their state budget will lose over EUR 1.5 billion as a result of this smuggling. Subsequently, German customs plan to create special control units that will operate inside Germany to catch bootleggers. In addition, experts also expect increased sales of petrol near the Polish-German border, as the price of petrol in this country is about 60% lower than that in Germany. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) E.B.