Estonia to combat large-scale imports of alcohol from Latvia

Estonia’s Tax and Customs Department plans to equip all border control checkpoints with surveillance cameras to record car registration numbers to thereby better combat large-scale imports of alcohol from Latvia.

This was reported on Monday by ERR with reference to Estonian newspaper Postimees.

At the same time, the Tax and Customs Department wants to add legislative amendments to identify people who carry alcoholic drinks across the Latvian border to later sell them in Estonia.

Every adult that arrives in Estonia from another EU member state is allowed to carry up to 110 litres of beer, up to 90 litres of wine and up to 10 litres of strong alcohol, as well as 20 litres of other alcoholic drinks the concentration of alcohol in which does not exceed 22% for personal use.

Estonia’s Tax and Customs Department is currently preparing for a situation when rising excise tax leads to the formation of illegal networks engaged in trade of alcohol imported from Latvia.

Last week, Estonian border guards stopped a truck whose driver had bought 1.5 tons of beer in Latvia. He claimed he planned to sell the beer in Finland.

In February, Estonia increased excise tax for alcohol by 15%. The government plans to keep raising the tax for alcohol in the next several years. This initiative has earned heavy criticisms among alcohol producers and traders.

Because of rising prices in Estonia, many of its residents opt to cross the border and procure alcoholic drinks in Latvia, where they are considerably cheaper.

Estonia’s budget loses revenue because of that. It is noted that higher taxes for alcohol do not help reduce alcohol consumption in the country.

BNN/LETA 

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