Thomas Liebel, the federal chairman of the BDZ German Customs and Finance Union, has warned against a substantial increase in tobacco taxes. He stated in an interview with Die Welt that the expectation of a massive revenue boost is unrealistic. According to Liebel, the larger the price gap between legal and illegal goods, the more attractive tax evasion becomes. Already, the black market has displaced legal sales for many varieties of shisha tobacco. Liebel warned that if the tax burden is continually increased, this scenario risks extending to the entire cigarette market. Ultimately, the state would lose income while organized crime would achieve record profits. He concluded, “The planned tobacco tax increase will become a stimulus program for organized crime.” The BDZ, which represents approximately half of all customs officers with 26,000 members, is responsible for collecting a range of taxes.
Furthermore, Liebel tempered expectations regarding the planned tax on sugary beverages. He deemed the proposed implementation date of January 1, 2027, for a sugar tax simply unrealistic. He pointed out that fundamental elements were missing, let alone a formal draft law. He noted that just the necessary IT infrastructure would require about a year of development time, suggesting that the sugar tax could take effect as early as mid-2027. The same reservations apply to the planned plastic tax, as its taxed scope has not even been clearly defined. The collection and monitoring of a sugar tax would necessitate about 300 additional staff members, involving an administrative effort estimated to be in the middle two-digit million range. While acknowledging that the sugar tax may be justifiable from a public health perspective, Liebel described it, from the viewpoint of a customs representative, as “primarily a bureaucracy monster.”
