The government published this Friday a decree reviewing the rules for importing tobacco into France for individuals from a European Union country, as announced by Les Échos.
In this decree, there is no longer any mention of the quantities authorized for import. Since 2020, people traveling to a European Union country could bring back to France a maximum of 200 cigarettes, or one carton.
“Systematically sanction”
“We decided to no longer count the number of cartridges, to allow customs officers to systematically sanction those who want to trade by going to the other side of the border,” explained Thomas Cazeneuve, Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, guest of Sud Radio this Friday morning.
After a decision by the Council of State dating from October, the government had 6 months to align with European law, which sets the number of cigarettes that can be imported into the EU at 800. . The government could decide to set the same threshold as that in force in Europe or to set none. This is the second option that the government chose.
How will customs officials be able to distinguish personal consumption from trafficking? “Imagine, you have a well-packaged cartridge with the name of a recipient to whom you are going to make a delivery, tomorrow, the customs officer will be able to sanction it,” explains the minister, speaking to our colleagues. A person returning with different brand cartridges could also attract attention.
To summarize, customs officers will look for "a bundle of presumption of trade or resale of this product, whether it is 10 cartons of cigarettes as a single one", explained Thomas Cazeneuve during a press point this Friday, of which the Union is echoes. “Let us allow customs officers, as soon as there is suspicion of trafficking, of trade, to impose sanctions,” he insisted on Sud Radio.
The minister also called for “tax harmonization on tobacco”. “This subject must be part of the campaign themes that we will address in the European elections,” he added, while “very different taxes from one country to another” are applied to this issue.