KIEV, Sept. 23 – The large rise in excise rates is leading to a doubling in the prices of excised products and leads to a rise in demand for smuggled alcohol and cigarettes, President of the Ukrainian Commercial and Industrial Confederation (UCIC), Volodymyr Demchak, said at a roundtable on the increase in tax pressure via a rise in excise rates on consumer goods in conditions of a fall in buying power of the public, which was held in Kiev on Monday.

"If earlier we said that we have less than a 1% shadow tobacco market, today we have over 20%, and in the near future it will be at least 40%," Demchak said.