Illicit cigarette trade rose 16.1 percentage points, to 47.5% in November in the northeastern region, representing the highest share in the last five year.
The north-east of Romania continues to be most affected by the black market in 2015 as well, followed by northwestern region (+5.3 percentage points, to 30.3% in November).
Smuggling from Moldova decreased to 13.9% while smuggling from Serbia remained constant to 2.8%, the data showed.
“Cheap whites”, cigarettes that have no legitimate market, continue to account for the largest part of the black market, of 58.5%, although their weight fell by 7.9 percentage points in November compared with September.
In their turn, cigarette producers say Romania needs a national strategy to fight contraband, as the weight of cigarette smuggling in Romania is currently 75% above the average level, of 10%, in the European Union.
The tobacco industry is the second largest tax payer in Romania after the oil industry. In 2014, the tobacco industry contributed around EUR2.7 billion to the state budget, or 1.75% of GDP and 12.5% of total budget revenues.