NORWAY’S tipplers and sweet tooths may no longer feel a need to leave the country to stock up on their favorite vices.

The Nordic country’s ruling party has proposed cutting its famously high “sin” taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and sweets and other consumer goods after the coronavirus lockdown showed how much business is lost every year to Norwegians flocking to neighboring Sweden to snap up such items at cheaper prices.

Restrictions on travel between the Nordic neighbors imposed to contain transmissions of the coronavirus triggered a jump in retail sales, especially in regions bordering Sweden.

Norwegian authorities are keen to keep that trade humming to mitigate the economic downturn inflicted by the pandemic, even after any return to the open borders that have prevailed for almost 70 years of economic integration in the Nordic region.

Norway sealed its borders to all non-residents in mid-March before easing movement from June but imposing a 10-day quarantine on those returning from abroad, a rule that continues to deter traditional shopping runs to Sweden.

“The closure of borders because of the coronavirus created a full-scale experiment in what happens when all trade is moved back to Norway,” said Vetle Wang Soleim, a Conservative MP on a party committee that presented the tax cut proposal.

Trade from Norwegians buying goods in Sweden plummeted by 99 percent in the April-June period compared with the year-ago period, Statistics Norway data showed.

Nationwide, retail sales rose 10 percent in the April-July period, and 20 percent or more in some regions bordering Sweden already in March.

The tax cut initiative has been presented as a way to recapture trade lost to Sweden since the pandemic has shown high “sin levies” were not necessarily deterring Norwegians from indulging in booze, cigarettes and chocolates.

“For us now, the most important priority is to move jobs back to Norway. We just prefer them to buy these goods on the Norwegian side of the border,” Wang Soleim said.

Food in Norway is broadly 35 percent more expensive than in Sweden, and alcohol prices 67 percent higher, according to Statistics Norway.

In a scenario where cross-border trade stopped indefinitely, Norway would boost revenues from food, drink and other consumer good sales by at least US$1.3 billion, according to an analysis by consultancy Menon Economics.

It would also mean 8,200 new jobs and US$410 million more in tax revenue on top of the special levies on alcohol, sugar and tobacco, it said.(SD-Agencies)