Cigarette sellers in Bulgaria – legal and illegal – were bracing for increased demand for cigarettes as New Year price increases loom. Already, some foreign brands produced under licence are being sold at higher prices.

A report by bTV said that from the beginning of next year, prices of cigarettes would go up by an average of 40 per cent.

Smokers were not yet stocking up, sales people said.

Following up claims that the increases in excises would stimulate the illicit economy, bTV sent a team with a hidden camera to Sofia’s Zhenski Pazar (Women’s Market) where "literally every step" cigarettes without excise labels were offered to the team.

On December 25, Bulgarian news agency Focus said that some foreign cigarette brands were already being sold at higher prices in some Sofia shops.

Packets of 20 Marlboro were being sold at 4.20 leva, up from 3.90 leva, for example.

Some shops had the same brands with different prices. New stocks had been sent marked at higher prices, retailers said.

Focus quoted the Philip Morris Company as saying that the new prices had been registered with the Finance Ministry, and were "intermediate" prices aimed at a smoother transition to the new prices that would take effect from January 1 2010.

Earlier in December, Dnevnik calculated that popular domestic brands now costing 3.40 leva for a packet of 20 would increase to 4.50 leva.

According to Dnevnik, someone smoking a packet of Victory a day, who under the old prices would have spent 1241 leva a year on the habit, would with the new prices pay 1620, about 30 per cent more.
 
Alternatively, Dnevnik said, to spend the same sum as in 2009, that smoker should smoke about five fewer cigarettes a day.

The cheapest Bulgarian brands will see the highest price increases. Arda, currently sold for 2.30 leva, will cost 3.76 leva.