International experience of tobacco industry organization (ABSTRACT)

David Narmania

Experience and approaches to tobacco industry are different worldwide. Former USSR countries have quite developed tobacco industry. Given the ties between the USSR countries, tobacco industry used to be closely interrelated in this area.

Raw materials or semi-products were exchangeable among the countries where such production was not manufactured. After the Soviet Union disintegrated and the former USSR countries gained independence, modern kinds of interrelations among them assumed the form of international trade. This revealed an interesting picture for comparing the countries’ tobacco industries. The most civilized organizational forms are characteristic of the USA and European countries as nowadays these very countries are main producers of high-quality cigarettes.
Contrasted with neighboring countries, there are high taxes on cigarettes in Georgia and it is one of the main reasons for cigarette smuggling and false brands in the country. In particular, cigarettes tariff and tax rates are much lower in Russia than in Georgia, which is the main cause for smuggling large lots of labeled cigarettes from Russia.
At this stage, it is of much importance to our country with its large share of market occupied by the so-called contraband tobacco to learn and analyze the experience of various countries and later apply the obtained knowledge for further growth of the tobacco industry so that budget revenues from the tobacco import might become more optimal.