Deputy Dastan Bekeshev thinksthat the promotion of the initiative to reduce the excise tax on IQOS tobacco sticks is the usual lobby of “various deputies” who hide behind statements that electronic cigarettes are supposedly not as harmful as regular ones.
In addition, according to Bekeshev’s calculations, the budget may lose almost half of the funds from the taxwhich are subject to these tobacco sticks.
“But in fact, there is an ordinary lobby behind this. They want to turn these things into kilograms, and this is very dangerous. It is dangerous that these initiatives will be promoted through different deputies. And to my great regret here, my colleagues do not realize that this is not a product of prime necessity, on which taxes should be reduced. It would seem that cigarettes, on the contrary, should be increased, but here we have the opposite,” Bekeshev said.
According to him, the tobacco company that produces IQOS turned to the leader of one of the deputy groups.
Later on his Instagram, Bekeshev declaredthat we are talking about the leader of the deputy group “Eldik” Akylbek Tumonbaev. Also, according to him, IQOS tobacco sticks are now produced only by the company Philip Morris and it turns out that the deputies want to reduce taxes only in relation to one company.
“Although IQOS and cigarettes are one and the same,” concludes the deputy.
Bekeshev explained that at current rates, one pack of IQOS containing 20 tobacco sticks is taxed at 40 soms. That is, for each stick, the tobacco company pays two soms to the budget of Kyrgyzstan.
But the deputies propose to change this system and tax IQOS for every kilogram of sticks. In 2023 – 3,700 soms per 1 kg, and in 2027 – 5,300 soms per 1 kg, says Bekeshev.
Let’s calculate how many packs are in one kilogram. One pack of IQOS, in which 20 tobacco sticks weigh 5.4 grams.
1000/5.4 = 185 packs of IQOS
Now let’s find out what the tax will be for one pack with the new proposed rates:
3,700 soms (proposed excise rate in 2023) / 185.2 = 19.9 soms
“It turns out that for one pack of IQOS, the tax will be 19.9 soms, that is, half as much as established by the current Tax Code,” says Bekeshev.