Commenting some opinions saying that taxes over tobacco should be increased in favor of public wage scale, the Director-General of the Board of Directors at the Regie, Eng. Nassif Seklaoui, pointed out that "random increases over marginal tax rate that is not coinciding with border control and increasing smuggling rate to lowest levels, will undoubtedly lead to catastrophic outcomes. “The experience has taught us since 1999, when customs duties were raised up to 13 percent, and sales dropped from 1,200,000 (tobacco) boxes to 600,000 boxes. Then, we fall into a huge financial deficit”, he added.
Yehia Jaber
Many Lebanese regions; such as South, North, and Bekaa, have long been associated with tobacco cultivation. However, most Lebanese have no clue about the exact age of this sector that is suffering from heavy pressures, how and when it had began, the area of the fields that it occupies, how many families are benefiting from it, the income it provides to farmers, as well as the national treasury, and the readiness of this sector for development, growth, and competition… The questions we have to ask to the Director General and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Regie Eng. Nassif Seklaoui are numerous. The man came into this position since the nineties of last century and gained a great experience tha continuous development of capacity-building.
It is worth noting that Philip Morris products are sold in more than 180 markets and around 80 thousand employees work for the company worldwide. The company also has more than 400 engineers, technicians, and researchers who are working on the development of non-tobacco products.