OREANDA-NEWS. On 08 April 2009 was announced, that Belarus may disallow privately-owned companies to wholesale tobacco goods, an official in a concerned ministry told.

“Lawmakers are working on amendments to decree #28 on state regulation of production, turnover and consumption of tobacco goods,” the source said.

Over 170 entities are now licensed to wholesale tobacco goods, but many of them are not involved in tobacco trade.

“One option that is considered now is a transfer of the right to wholesale cigarettes to state-run companies,” he said.

But experts believe state wholesalers are not ready to meet the requirement of the market because of the shortage of finance and infrastructure.

“The market capacity is 18 billion cigarettes annually. If state-run companies are given the exclusive right to wholesale cigarettes, while private distributors are ousted from the market, consumers will face a deficit,” a market expert said.

“Another consequence is a dramatic drop in cigarette trade, hence shorter budget revenues,” he added.