From March 2, 2023, BAT Polska and the National Police Headquarters officially begin systemic cooperation in combating illegal production and trade in tobacco products, as well as disclosing and eliminating tobacco products from illegal sources from economic circulation.
The official signing of the agreement took place on March 2 at the Police Headquarters. On behalf of BAT, the document was signed by the members of the company’s management board: Asli Ertonguc – General Manager of Poland&Baltics and Piotr Stefaniak – Financial Director, and on the part of the Police, Chief Inspector Paweł Dobrodziej – Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Police, with the participation of Magdalena Nguyen-Fudali – Director of the Office for Combating Economic Crime of the National Police Headquarters and Marek Odyniec – Deputy Commander of the Central Police Investigation Bureau.
The subject of the agreement is the exchange of information on the production and trade in illegal tobacco products, ways of identifying them and methods of production as well as knowledge and experience useful in detecting crimes in this area.
BAT Poland consistently supports activities aimed at combating the shadow economy, e.g. organizing conferences for the CBŚP and the economic division of the Police with the participation of KAS, the Border Guard, employees of foreign diplomatic services and an international group of experts. This year, the conference will be organized for the sixteenth time. Effective fight against organized tobacco crime contributes to reducing budget losses not only in Poland, but also in other European and Scandinavian countries.
BAT Poland is also a regular partner of conferences organized by the National Task Force for Tobacco Products of Customs Services in Białystok. In addition, the company is involved in supporting the coordination of cross-border activities of services, training for commanders and heads of departments of with economic crime of all county commands from the so-called eastern wall.
In recent years, the BAT factory in Augustów hosted participants of the conference of customs services of the Visegrad Group.
The justification for the agreement points to the increase in the number of crimes of this type and the emergence of new methods of action by perpetrators recently.
It is worth noting that thanks to the improvement of the excise duty supervision system, better border control and increased enforcement, the share of the shadow economy decreased from 18.3% to 18.3%. in 2015 to 4.9 percent. in the first half of 2022. This success was undoubtedly achieved thanks to the joint efforts of the Police, KAS and the Ministry of Finance.