BRATISLAVA (SITA) The Slovak Association of Trade (AVODIS) recommends all wholesalers and retailers, as well as to distributors, not to buy short cigarettes from producers and importers until the final decision on the enactment of the amendment to the Law on the Tobacco Excise Tax is taken. The bill, approved by Parliament on July 2, should decrease the excise tax on cigarettes shorter than 70 millimeters from 50 to 35 hellers. The bill should have come in force as of August 1. The AVODIS secretariat informed SITA on the development. AVODIS decided to issue this recommendation because Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar has neither signed nor returned the bill for re-negotiation to Parliament so far. Thus, the original act stipulating the higher excise tax is still valid. The Trade Association has turned to Mečiar with a request to "make the final decision as soon as possible and either sign the bill or decide otherwise," writes the AVODIS stance.