Ahead of the second and the third readings of excise tax bill for tobacco productsl scheduled for Tuesday 24, Daily MF Dnes brought an interview with Anja Fiedlerova a new CEO of Philip Morris. The CEO said that PMCR’s decline in market share should stop after 2008 when Czech Republic reaches the minimal EU excise tax level for tobacco products.
Our view: No new information has been published in the interview. The current Finance Minister plans less aggressive and more gradual hike on tobacco than the CSSD government. According to new proposal, the excise tax should increase to EUR 60 per 1,000 cigarettes as of January 2007 in comparison with the previous proposal EUR 62 per 1,000.