Impact analysis of the review of tobacco excise duty rules : final report; Volume 1

The main purpose of this study is to contribute to the Commission's Impact Assessment of the revision of Directive 2011/64/EU on the structure and rates of excise duty applied to manufactured tobacco. The study's tasks involved identifying and assessing policy problems and possible options for changes of the current rules and carrying out an impact analysis of such options. The study included an extensive consultation of relevant stakeholders, i.e.: MS tax, customs, and public health authorities; qualified officers within the Commission and the WHO; economic operators; tobacco control experts; and the general public. In addition, the analysis relied on panel data from various official and market intelligence sources as well as on five case studies covering: cross-border flows, illicit manufacturing and trade, raw tobacco, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. The results of the study show that the Directive would benefit from three main policy interventions, namely: (1) the revision of the current excise duty minima; (2) the introduction of harmonised excise duty categories for new products, such as heated tobacco and e-cigarettes; and (3) the introduction of measures to strengthen the monitoring of raw tobacco flows across the EU and to prevent diversion to illicit channels.