The Ministry of Finance approved the concept of licensing tobacco trade
According to Kommersant, the plans of the Ministry of Finance to introduce tobacco retail licensing by analogy with the permissive regime for the alcohol market are approved at a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister and the head of the government apparatus Dmitry Grigorenko. As expected, from the fall of 2026, trading permits will require each tobacco retail object, a single violation will be enough to lose the license, its cost will be in different versions from 20 thousand rubles. for a year up to 60 thousand rubles. For five years. The requirements for trading facilities will be recorded by the federal center, having stipulated the right of the regions to tighten them, the execution control will also be divided between the levels of power and partially digitalized. The companies note that the new regulation can cause a decrease in the number of tobacco outlets and the effect will greatly depend on the nature of the requirements of the authorities, for example, to confirm the rights of the premises.
The government has finalized the concept of licensing retail trade tobacco and its substitutes, including wards and hookahs. The fact that the Ministry of Finance intends to introduce retail licensing into the industry, desperate in the fight against the illegal sale of nicotine -containing products, Kommersant wrote on February 18, the idea itself has been discussed at least from the summer of 2024 (see. « Kommersant » on August 14). Now high profits in this sector more than covers the risks of sellers from current fines and sanctions for violations. The need to solve the problem, as well as the success of the authorities in the digital accounting of the movement of goods using labeling (see « Kommersant » dated July 12, 2024) and pushed the White House to introduce a permits in the retail trade tobacco – in general, it will be quite close to the requirements that already apply in alcohol retail.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the documents describing the current views of the Ministry of Finance on what would happen when the licenses are introduced in the tobacco industry. In the concept of reform of the regulation of tobacco retail, the department proposes to introduce requirements from September 1, 2026 (new restrictions on the Law on Control and Supervision can be realized no more than twice a year, September 1 or March 1, the deferred start clearly takes into account both the editing of the legislation and the adaptation of the market: there are no social consequences in the form of “tobacco riotes” in the government). To issue licenses will be a Rosalcolet -Bacrohlation – the relevant agency of the Ministry of Finance – at the choice of the applicant on the Gostekh platform, where they are already issuing permits for production and wholesale trade in tobacco and its substitutes, or in the state -owned system of goods labeling (GIS MT). Systems will automatically exchange data. There will also be posted a register of licenses and a service for drawing up documents.
De facto revolutions are not expected-the current system will simply expand its functionality. At the same time, it is proposed to transfer the work with the system and communicating with the business within the framework of the new permits to the authorities of the regions – the Ministry of Finance simply does not have the necessary apparatus for this.
A separate license will be required for each trading object. The conditions for its receipt are the availability of registration in GIS MT. Devices for smoking devices, the labeling of which is not yet obligatory, licenses will become necessary only after the introduction of such a requirement. Also, the licensee will have to have trading facilities in the ownership or lease that meet the requirements of the “anti-tobacco” FZ-15 of February 23, 2013, and not have over 3 thousand rubles tax debts. A separate block of requirements, so far the most unclear for implementation, is the obligation of the business to confirm the fulfillment of restrictions on Art. 19 and 20 of the Law (a ban on the trade in cigarettes by the place of minors) and additional regional restrictions.
The constituent entities of the Russian Federation can introduce their requirements to the area of trading facilities, but within the limits established by the center of the minimum and maximum values. They want to fix the control procedure at the federal level, sharing, in particular, the powers of the city and regional authorities. It is assumed that the control over compliance with federal restrictions on the Rosalcoltabargulation will be carried out remotely – using the inspector’s mobile application (see. « Kommersant » dated August 21, 2024) and requests to colleagues in the government. The constituent entities of the Russian Federation are proposed to leave the possibility of exit control.
The Ministry of Finance proposes to fix the state duty for issuing a license at the level of 60 thousand rubles. For retail and 800 thousand rubles. For wholesale trade in tobacco, the duration of the document will be five years, its extension (with confirmation of compliance with the requirements) will also be subject to duty.
A closed list of grounds for canceling the trade permission will include one -time violation of licensing requirements, as well as standard conditions – evasion of verification, liquidation of the company or individual entrepreneurs, etc. After cancellation, it will be possible to resume the license for the same year later.
These details are probably quite close to the final configuration of the new regulation: the Kommersant Government has confirmed that the concept was discussed with representatives of tobacco companies at two meetings-the “regulatory” deputy minister, the state secretary of the Ministry of Economy Alexei Kherson Khersonov and the deputy head of the Ministry of Finance Alexei Sazanov. The authorities do not expect surprises from the market.
According to Mr. Grigorenko, the last meeting on this topic, the concept of the Ministry of Finance of the White House was supported by the relevant departments, by the middle of summer, to agree and submit to the government to correspondent changes to the current legislation. The discussions around the project do not look fundamental – in the protocol, only a proposal is recorded to limit the minimum area of a tobacco camp of 5 square meters. m (but the constituent entities of the Russian Federation will be able to increase this threshold) and reduce the validity of the license to one year, if necessary, annual payment of a fee in the amount of 20 thousand rubles.
In JTI, PMI and International Tobacco Group to the questions of Kommersant about how the plans of the White House will not answer tobacco trading promptly. Two Kommersant interlocutors in the tobacco market called the issue of trade licensing extremely sensitive to manufacturers. One of them did not exclude that the introduction of measures will lead to a significant reduction in the number of places of sale of products, primarily due to small points of the sale of tobacco.
DNA Realty CEO Anton Belykh does not exclude that the introduction of licensing for tobacco retail will be more noticeable than for the alcohol market. It is mainly about the situational business: it occupies small premises – 11–20 square meters. m, often it is a sublease of part of the area, contracts for a period of 11 months. An important point, Mr. Belykh calls the mechanism for monitoring the availability of agreements with the owners in tobacco stores. Difficulties may create the need to register them in Rosreestr, following the example of alcohol retail. Then the small areas of tobacco shops will need to be separately allocated, but not all owners are ready to do this work, the expert believes. As a result, the pace of development of tobacco retail can slow down.
