Alcohol, Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Shadow economy, Taxation

EUR 11.8 million was excise tax and VAT the state did not collect due to sale of illegal alcohol. EUR 58.5 million was excise tax and VAT not collected due to contraband cigarettes.

The survey showed that 79% of respondents consumed in 2014 alcoholic beverages and 3% of them had bought also illegal alcohol. The share of buyers of illegal alcohol fell by 1 percentage point in a year. The cause for buying it was cheaper price – illegal vodka was by 30% cheaper than the legal cheaper brands' vodka.

Illegal alcohol sale has moved from public places to sellers homes as 73% of the consumers had bought it there. The institute calculated that 1.4 mln euros of illegal alcohol was consumed in Estonia last year, which formed 17-215 of the vodka consumed by Estonian residents.

Consumption of illicit cigarettes has also fallen. 19% of smokers bought both them knowingly versus 21% a year earlier.

Contraband cigarettes formed last year 19-22% of the market, and an estimated 430 million illegal cigarettes were consumed.