Customs officials on Russia's western border reported Wednesday that they had begun turning back alcohol and tobacco shipments that do not bear new excise stamps.


Vladimir Geller, economics director of the Smolensk customs point on the border with Belarus, said that his station had already turned back some 15 trucks carrying "excise goods," meaning tobacco and alcohol.


He said that not one shipment had yet crossed the border with the new excise stamps, which must be adhered to each pack and bottle imported after Jan. 1.


"None of the trucks that arrived at the border since the beginning of 1995 had goods with excise stamps," he said in a telephone interview from Smolensk. "I do not know what importers hope for."


Tatyana Petrova, head of the customs value department at the Bryansk customs point, said the situation was the same at her station.


Geller said that he expected even more trucks to be turned back after Russian Christmas on Jan. 7.


The Russian government introduced excise stamps on Jan. 1 as part of a plan agreed with the International Monetary Fund to boost budgetary revenues and cut smuggling.


Earlier this month, however, many importers still hadn't bought the stamps, and few even knew how the system would work.


Under the new regime, importers must order the stamps from a local State Customs Committee, after which they are printed at Gosznak, the state mint.


The importer than sends the stamps to the foreign supplier, which must attach them to each pack of cigarettes and bottle of spirits.


Sergei Kuptsov, president of Moscow Cash & Carry Mozhaisk, a big Russian-German wholesaler, called the new regime "unrealistic," and said his company had suspended tobacco and alcohol purchases."


The new regulation was invented by people in armchairs, who do not know how business is done," he said. " I have suppliers from all over the world; how can I go to each of them and ask to stick stamps on every bottle?"


Other importers have also criticized the government's new excise stamp system, complaining that the entire process of obtaining the stamps and sending them to the supplier can take several months.