In an interview granted to BURSA discussing tax evasion, former Finance minister Sebastian Vlădescu said that cigarette smuggling is small potatoes compared to gas smuggling.

Sebastian Vlădescu says that the action of the authorities against cigarette smuggling through the customs is a step forward in the fight against tax evasion in general. The former minister of Finance said: "Cigarette contraband is petty for the most part. If an investigation was initiated and it was done thoroughly, it will not stop, in case there was indeed a pyramid system which collected the money. But in my opinion, as to what concerns cigarette contraband, I don"t think it went beyond several zonal collections of payments. Things were set up on a local level, with several institutions operating in collusion, such as the customs and the police".

Tax evasion is a complex phenomenon, with grounds which are specific to each field in which it is present, the former finance minister suggests, comparing cigarette contraband with gas smuggling and with tax evasion in the food and agricultural sector.

Sebastian Vlădescu considers that there is a major difference between cigarette contraband and that involving gas: "These are different worlds, and different fiscal deposits. When it comes to Oil Terminal, we are discussing trains, oil cars, pipelines. On the border with Ukraine for instance, we are talking about ships that perform operations with diesel oil which is carried out of Ukraine without paying duties, unloaded in the next port and introduced in Romania".

Contraband with oil products is one which is done on a large scale, whereas cigarette contraband is mostly small potatoes, says Vlădescu: "The market for oil products is where the battle is, this is where we need to see how far the distribution channels go".

Vlădescu says that the focal point for the contraband