RIGA — An increased tariff on cigarettes was passed today and an extended curfew for alcohol purchases is under discussion as the Latvian parliament looks to vice taxes to ward away the government deficit.

Anyone bringing cigarettes to Latvia from a non-Schengen member country by land or by sea will not be allowed to carry more than 40 cigarettes into the country without paying an excise tax. Before the law allowed up to 200 cigarettes to be exempt from excise tax. Non-schengen land borders to Latvia include Russian and Belarus.

The law also affects other tobacco products. Twenty cigarillos instead of 100, 10 cigars instead of 50, and 50 grams of tobacco instead of 250 grams will be allowed into the country without paying excise tax.

The law, however, does not apply to people arriving by airplane.

A Saeima (Latvian Parliament) press release stated that the law was intended to stop people that “cross the external border with Russia or Belarus four or more times per week.”

Such people “are regarded as possible illegal commercial activities. According to the authors of the amendments, in such cases tobacco products most probably are intended not for personal consumption but for illegal sale without paying excise tax.”

Latvia’s finance ministry estimates that the change in excise policy could bring in 4.1 million lats (€5.8 million) for the cash-strapped national government.

Alcohol curfew may be extended

Cigarettes might not be the only affected under the new “sin tax.” The Saeima is also discussing extending the amount of time alcohol can be purchased. Buying alcohol in stores is currently prohibited after 10 p.m. The Economic, Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Policy Committee, headed by People’s Party member Vents Armands Krauklis, is debating raising the time to 11 p.m. which would allow for more excise tax to be collected. No legislative proposals have been introduced on the matter, though.

“It’s just a discussion in the committee,” Lelde Rāfelde, director of the Saeimas press service told Baltic Reports. “They haven’t made any decision.”