On Thursday, the Council of Ministers approved a bill that aims to prevent the sale of tobacco in places where smoking is no longer allowed, such as petrol stations, cafes and restaurants, and that will ban the commercialization of tobacco from October. heated tobacco with aromas.
Tabaqueira/PMI – Philip Morris International warns that these measures could “create a favorable scenario for the illicit trade” of tobacco, while ensuring availability to contribute to this change process, which he says “should become the goal of prior consultation, broad debate and participatory dialogue with all parties involved.”
The first measure – which, like the second, will still be discussed and subject to approval by the Assembly of the Republic – should come into force in 2025 and once it became public on Wednesday, there were several negative reactions. The warning about the possibility of the government measure could reduce jobs related to the tobacco industry, as well as impact the income it generates for the country, comes through the Portuguese Federation of Tobacco Wholesalers (FPGT).
In a statement quoted by Lusa, the federation declares the revision of the 2007 tobacco law premature and refers to the economic losses of the industry, which “provides 3,000 direct jobs and 44,000 indirect jobs and generates significant revenues in trade” . .
In support of its statements, the FPGT also mentions the study “The Economic and Social Impact of the Tobacco Industry in Portugal” carried out by Iscte, which describes, for example, that the average turnover (UN) of tobacco companies (138 million euros) is 106 times higher than the turnover of companies in the various manufacturing sectors (1.3 million euros).
The document also adds that 43,848 people were affected by the tobacco sector across the value chain in 2021 and of these, 3,186 were direct workers in the industry. “Of these, 1528 worked in the three business groups surveyed and 1658 in supply companies. The total number of workers directly affected corresponded to 0.07% of the active population in Portugal,” the report concludes.
Tabaqueira says he is available to discuss all aspects of this government proposal and warns that, given the information that is publicly available, it is necessary “to consider the possible negative consequences arising from measures with a very wide range of economic and social dimensions , not yet quantified, and which could create a scenario conducive to illicit trade”.
At the same time, Tabaqueira recalls that the European Commission is conducting a public consultation to revise the European directive on tobacco products, with a view to controlling smoking, and criticizes the government’s proposal not to take into account this reality.
the weight of tobacco
According to the Iscte study, “in fiscal terms, in the same year (2021), the operation and sale of products manufactured by the three business groups in the tobacco sector (Tabaqueira | PMI, Fábrica de Tabaco Micaelense and Empresa Madeirense de Tabacos) generated revenues for the state of about 1.2 billion euros – the equivalent of almost 3.3 million euros a day”.
Which, divided by 365 days, corresponds to a delivery to public finances of more than 3.27 million euros per day, in 2021, by the three business groups, the study highlights.
However, despite these figures, the Health Minister stated at the press conference after yesterday’s cabinet meeting that “this tax revenue is indispensable but undesirable, because it stems largely from the attempt to make the price of tobacco also a deterrent to consumption”.
And he added that the measure comes to help ensure the health of the Portuguese. “Let there be no doubt that what the Portuguese are paying with their health, with their lives in the National Health Service because of tobacco, is far more than any tobacco tax revenue”. “From a fiscal point of view, a society without tobacco would be a society with much healthier government bills,” Manuel Pizarro stressed.
However, as the Iscte study clarifies, in 2020 the weight of Portuguese production (15%) in the total sales of tobacco products produced in the EU was 10 times higher than the weight of Portuguese GDP (1.5%) in the GDP of the EU” and that in 2021, excluding the state, banking and intragroup PMI, “Tabaqueira | PMI 258 suppliers, to whom it paid a total of 164 million euros”.
Of these, 93% are national suppliers, to whom 70% of the total payments have been made. That was good for “a purchasing volume of about 114.5 million euros” in that year. With regard to exports of manufacturing goods, the Iscte report reveals that “tobacco business groups are responsible for an export value of more than €719.34 million (1.21% of total manufacturing exports), with nearly all of this amount (€719.17 million) will go to Tabaqueira|PMI”.
All these factors combined, the study concludes that in 2021 the groups of companies in the tobacco industry contributed more than €260 million to the national GDP (which was about €214,471 million). “The industry’s largest contributor to this economic activity quantification indicator is Tabaqueira|PMI, which represents more than 94% of the industry’s GDP,” the document reads.
Source: DN
