[Intl-tobacco] Brown & Williamson presses Russia over tobacco taxes (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

US cigarette maker presses Russia over tobacco taxes
Text of report in English by Russian news agency Interfax
by Source: BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union - Economic / Publication date: 
2000-08-12

Moscow, 11th August: Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and
officials from the Philip Morris company met today to discuss the
situation on the Russian tobacco market and the import of tobacco into
Russia.

Attempts by numerous Duma members to impose quotas on the import of
cigarettes and increase excise duties levied on tobacco goods worry the
company, Klebanov told the press after the meeting. A conference in the
Taxes and Duties Ministry today will discuss the situation on the tobacco
market, he said.

Foreign companies have shares in ten of the 30 largest Russian tobacco
factories, Klebanov said. These ten account for 68 per cent of the
cigarettes made in the country and, unlike the purely Russian companies,
pay taxes faithfully, he said.

Philip Morris has invested 350m dollars in a new tobacco factory in
Izhora, Leningrad Region, and has created nearly 700 new jobs there. The
factory will make 25bn cigarettes a year.