Alcohol producers seem to contribute to the Health Ministry (HM) much less than those of the tobacco industry, given that the latter paid over 635 million euros in 2008 and 2009, and the HM claims that it spent 746 million euros of this tax in the past two years.

According to Art.361 of Law 95/2006 "the revenues of the Health Ministry resulted from contributions of legal persons producing or importing tobacco products and alcoholic beverages, other than beer and wine, or creating revenue from advertising and other products, are used for investments in infrastructure and public health system facilities, for financing national health programmes and for the HM reserve for special situations."

At the request of the Curierul Naţional, the producers in the tobacco industry told us that they transferred into the HM account with the Treasury amounts exceeding 335 million euros in 2008, respectively over 300 million euros in 2009, the decrease in last year's sum, as compared to 2008, being "due to the increase in smuggling to the detriment of the legal cigarette market."

Ask how they spent the money, the representatives of the Health Ministry informed us that the amount of over 3 billion lei, about 746 million euros, collected from the vice tax in 2008 and 2009 was spent according to the law, for investments in infrastructure and public health system facilities, for financing the national health programmes and for the HM reserve for special situations.

Contacted by telephone, Romulus Dascălu, President of GARANT, employers organisation in the alcohol and alcohol products industry explained us that sales dropped by 100 million units (bottles) in the first six months after the introduction of the vice tax. 'People shifted to self-consumption, that is to consumption of the own production of plum brandy, fruit brandy and other spirits, so that the num