Cigarette packs to be issued electronic IDs

In a bid to crack down on the illegal trade in tobacco, the government is designing a new system that will issue products with unique traceability codes that will accompany each packet from the phase of production, through marketing and up until it reaches consumers.

According to a report by KPMG, in 2018 the consumption of illegal cigarettes in the European Union accounted for 8.6 percent of the total - representing 43.6 billion cigarettes, which is equivalent to four times the legal consumption in Greece.

The report shows that the illegal cigarette market in Greece in 2018 jumped to 23.6 percent, placing the country at the top of the relevant list in the EU. At the same time, Greece registered the largest quantity of counterfeit cigarettes in the EU (1.5 billion cigarettes).

The General Secretariat for Information Systems (GSIS) has declared an open...