The article is aimed at systematizing the foreign experience in the development of the mechanism for administration of excise tax on tobacco products, taking into account the institutional peculiarities of fiscal policy. Further changes in the excise taxation system should take into consideration both the domestic retrospective experience and the empirical experience of other countries. The article discusses the system of licensing for the production, import and export of tobacco products and

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... oduction equipment, as well as wholesale and retail trade in these products. The European experience of licensing of retail trade in tobacco products is researched. Licensing should be considered as a potential source of budget revenues, as well as an additional tool for ensuring the implementation of other provisions on the organization of the activities of the places for selling excisable goods. The expediency of adaptation of the experience of countries with an emergent economy as to the use of video surveillance systems in tax warehouses is substantiated. The architecture of the video surveillance system must be coordinated with fiscal authorities, which can determinate and verify its functionality and efficiency. The approaches to interaction between fiscal and law enforcement bodies in the sphere of counteraction to illegal trade in tobacco products are generalized. Coordination of customs authorities and special investigation units is a key element in the successful counteraction to the illegal trade in tobacco products. The peculiarities of functional powers of regulatory authorities in the sphere of counteraction to the illegal tobacco market in Germany, Italy and Lithuania are determined. The specifics of cross-border cooperation between the EU Member States and European institutions on countering the cigarette and raw tobacco material smuggling are studied.