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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue

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Results for cigarette smuggling (u.k.)

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Author: de Lacy, Elen

Title: Predictors of tobacco smuggling in the South Wales Valleys

Summary: In the space of one week in November 2008, Welsh Trading Standards officers in twelve South East Wales authorities conducted authenticity checks on over 54,000 packs of cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco. As a result of this work, over 45,000 cigarettes and 144kg of hand rolling tobacco were seized. There are different types of illicit trade in tobacco products. These include large scale smuggling, bootlegging and counterfeit smuggling. Not all smuggling involves counterfeit products. Smuggled products may also be UK manufactured tobacco products that have been diverted to the black market. Definitions - Smuggling is the illegal transport and distribution of tobacco products, usually without payment of correct government taxes. Smuggling can be large scale or small bootlegging operations. - Counterfeiting is the illegal production of "fake" brand cigarettes without the consent of the brand owner. Cheap and illicit tobacco undermines price (tax) and other tobacco control measures such as age of sale regulations. The criminal activities of smuggling, and increasingly, counterfeiting, lead to the availability of tobacco at less than half the tax-paid price in many deprived areas. This maintains smokers in their addiction and encourages young people to start smoking. It is estimated that 11.6% of all internationally traded cigarettes are smuggled, equivalent to 657 billion cigarettes a year, causing losses to government revenue worldwide of US$40.5 billion. In the UK by the late 1990s, cigarette smuggling had reached epidemic proportions. The tobacco industry estimated that 25%-30% of the total market was made up of illegally imported cigarettes15 although Customs & Excise estimated the figure to be no more than 21%16. Tobacco smuggling was costing the Government more than L3 billion a year in lost revenue. Cutting tobacco tax cannot solve the problem of smuggling. Even if all countries levelled exactly the same level of taxes and had identical prices, smuggling would still continue at a large scale. The total illicit cigarette market in high income countries is 9.8% compared to 16.8% in low income countries. It has been estimated that if the global illicit trade were eliminated, governments would gain at least $31 billion, and from 2030 onwards would save over 160,000 lives a year.

Details: Cardiff: ASH Wales, 2011. 17p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 25, 2014 at: http://www.ashwales.org.uk/creo_files/upload/default/report_of_predictors_of_smuggling_in_the_south_wales_valleys.pdf

Year: 2011

Country: United Kingdom

URL: http://www.ashwales.org.uk/creo_files/upload/default/report_of_predictors_of_smuggling_in_the_south_wales_valleys.pdf

Shelf Number: 134237

Keywords:
Cigarette Smuggling (U.K.)
Illicit Cigarettes
Tax Evasion
Tobacco Smuggling