It seems that the filling of the state budget with all the possible means has brought the government to fiery. In the recent period almost all the initiatives of the government have this exact purpose – levy as much money as possible from all the sectors. Indeed, everything is done with beautiful formulations and as it is characteristic to the government with pathos. The government has sent a package to the NA, the purpose of which is the increase of taxes levied from imported and locally produced cigarettes. The government is substantiating this initiative with the necessity of “justified taxing” and indeed with the honest intentions of fight against smoking. In the substantiation of the government presented by the government it reads that as a result of these changes it is expected to increase the tax inflows with annually 3 billion AMD. The cigarette as known is one of the types of goods, the demand of which almost doesn’t decrease due to the raise of price. It means that as a result of changes, the smokers instead of quitting will only have to pay more. Both the government and cigarette importing companies quite well realize this. They will pay the added taxes not at the expense of their profits but through the consumers. And the claims on the fight against smoking are only lyrical phrases. The government needs that the people continue smoking. It is desirable that they smoke more so that the government fills more money in the budget. So it is not excluded that some day the government may decide that gasoline is dangerous for the environment and they will decide to increase the taxes. The monopolists will only be happier about that.
