[Intl-tobacco] BAT, Others Ask Korea to Cut Proposed Import Tax, Yonhap Says (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

BAT, Others Ask Korea to Cut Proposed Import Tax, Yonhap Says
by Kyunghee Park
Source: Bloomberg News, Sunday, 3/18/01

 Seoul, March 18 (Bloomberg) -- British American Tobacco Plc, Philip
Morris Cos. and other foreign companies have asked the South Korean
government, which plans to impose a 40 percent import tax on cigarettes in
July, to lower the proposed tax rate, Yonhap News said.

Foreign companies sent letters to the government earlier this month,
saying the import tax, on top of the existing 10 percent value-added tax,
will make their brands more expensive, Yonhap said, citing unidentified
officials at the Finance and Economy Ministry.

South Korea will soon allow foreign companies to make cigarettes in the
country, ending the monopoly of state-run Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corp.,
which controls 90 percent of the domestic market.

Along with the move, the government plans to impose the 40 percent import
tax.  The foreign tobacco makers say the government should lower the tax
rate because they must continue to export cigarettes until they build
production plants in the country.

(Yonhap News, 3-18) or click {YHNP } for Web site.