All of Romania’s customs points will be revamped and modernized by the end of this year so that all merchandise entering the country will be scanned, finance minister Eugen Teodorovici said on Friday, May 4.

“It’s a very ambitious objective, which will be done. All the country’s customs points will be modernized,” the minister said.

He added that the customs should have the same status as the defense sector, which would allow equipment acquisitions to be carried out immediately. Once this process is completed, all the merchandise entering Romania will be scanned, which would significantly reduce cigarette smuggling.

Romania has the highest level of the cigarette black market in the EU, representing over 17% of the total cigarette sales in the country. This leads to about EUR 640 million worth of lost taxes to the state budget.

editor@romania-insider.com