Montenegro has increased the excise duty on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in a move to align its taxes with European Union standards.

The specific excise tax on cigarettes was raised to €50.50 per 1000 cigarettes from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024 and will rise to €52.00 from 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2024. Proportional excise duty on cigarettes paid from the retail price of cigarettes remains at 24.5% from 1 January 2024 (as was the previous rate in 2023).

The current law also prescribes the excise calendar of the minimum excise duty on cigarettes, expressed in absolute amount for 1000 cigarettes, which will ensure full compliance of the excise duty with the minimum prescribed by the Directive, from 1 January 2025. Namely, this law stipulates that the minimum excise duty amounts to:

• €83.50 for 1000 pieces from 1 July 2023;
• €86.00 for 1000 pieces from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024;
• €89.00 for 1000 pieces from 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2024;
• €91.50 for 1000 cigarettes from 1 January 2025.

Excise duty on smokeless tobacco products increased to €190.00 per kilogram of tobacco.  

Excise duty on liquid for filling electronic cigarettes or other electronic devices remains €0.70 per millilitre of liquid (as was the previous rate in 2023, which experienced an increase on 1 July 2023 up from €0.07 per millilitre).

For more information, please contact Dr Agima Ljaljevic, WHO FCTC focal point in Montenegro (agima.ljaljevic@ijzcg.me)

(Pictured: Novica Vuković, Minister of Finance of Montenegro at the Third Session of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP3) to the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, Panama City, Panama, 12 to 15 February 2024 © WHO / FCTC / Jusack Duarte)