Cigarettes in Bosnia and Herzegovina have not risen in price since the beginning of 2025. Large distributors and manufacturers of cigarettes are obliged to submit new retail prices of cigarettes to the Directorate for Indirect Taxation at least one month before the entry into force of the new prices, and the ITA has not yet received any announcement of an increase in the price of cigarettes in BiH, according to the ITA of BiH.
We remind you that in accordance with the Decision on determining the specific and minimum excise duty on cigarettes and excise duty on smoking tobacco in 2025, which was adopted by the Management Board of the Indirect Taxation Administration at the beginning of December 2024, the following excise duties are payable per pack of cigarettes:
(a) proportional excise duty at the rate of 42% of the retail price of cigarettes
(b) specific excise duty in the amount of 82.50 KM for 1,000 pieces, i.e. 1.65 KM for a package of 20 pieces,
If the total excise duty on cigarettes (proportional + specific), which is calculated according to the rates mentioned above, is less than the minimum excise duty, then the minimum excise duty is paid, which in 2025 amounts to 3.58 KM per pack of cigarettes. As all packs of cigarettes sold on the market in BiH already have a total excise duty higher than the minimum, there was no reason to increase the retail prices of cigarettes from the beginning of 2025.
In order to further clarify, we give the following example:
If the current price of cigarettes in BiH is 5.80 KM per pack, the following excise tax is included in that price:
proportional – 42% of the retail price (that’s 2.44 KM)
specific – 1.65 KM
The total excise duty paid on this pack of cigarettes is the sum of proportional and specific excise duty and amounts to 4.09 KM. This means that this excise tax is higher than the minimum, which in 2025 amounts to 3.58 KM per pack, and there is no reason to increase the price of cigarettes.
