Smokers will end up reeling over following excise hikes

However, the prices will not increase yet as producers have a lot of cigarettes in stock. By January 1, 2009 Poland has to increase its excise tax to EUR 64 for each 1,000 cigarettes which is required by EU law. From 15 January the tax amounts to EUR 44 as compared to EUR 36 earlier. "The prices of cigarettes will increase once stocks of products covered by the old excise tax rate run out," stated the president of Philip Morris Polska Andrzej Dabrowski. The growth of prices will undoubtedly force consumers to buy cigarettes from lower price segments. Already last year the cheapest cigarettes had a 82% share of the market. "In 2007 there will be a further growth of the cheapest cigarettes segment and the pipe tobacco segment," stated Andrzej Dabrowski. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) E.B.