Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 10:17 pm
Time: 10:17 pm
Results for illegal products
10 results foundAuthor: Johnson, Bryan M. Title: Report: Feasibility Study of a Cigarette Tax Stamp Program in American Samoa Summary: A recent TAO report (May 2011) found that cigarettes were likely being smuggled into American Samoa and that as a result the government of the territory (ASG) was losing a significant of amount of cigarette excise tax revenue each year. The TAO report recommended that ASG implement a cigarette tax stamp program in order to control and prevent this smuggling. In support of that TAO recommendation, a feasibility study of a cigarette tax stamp program in American Samoa was commissioned by the American Samoa Community Cancer Network, and a report on the results of that feasibility study made. In order to establish the need for a cigarette tax stamp program, the feasibility study estimated the number of cigarettes that had been smuggled into American Samoa in 2010. That estimate (based on an analysis of demographic and cigarette excise tax data) indicated that as many as 5,792,924 cigarettes had been smuggled into the territory that year (smuggling referring to both the evasion and avoidance of excise taxes), which at the territory‟s cigarette excise tax rate of $0.125 per cigarette represented a revenue loss to ASG of $724,116. According to that estimate, the percentage of revenue losses to the government of American Samoa due to cigarette smuggling in 2010 was 8.4 percent, but the study calculated that even if the percentage of excise tax revenue lost to cigarette smuggling was only 3 to 5 percent, the revenue losses in 2010 would have still ranged from $257,547 to $429,247. Therefore, the study came to the following conclusions: 1. Based on an analysis of available data as well as other evidence, it was likely that millions of cigarettes were smuggled into the territory each year and that this smuggling deprived the government of American Samoa of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 2. That the territory‟s smuggling problem would continue and was likely to become worse in the near future if the cigarette excise tax rate were to be increased, and that such smuggling would deprive the government of badly-needed revenue and pose an on-going threat to public health. 3. That the government should take immediate measures to combat the problem, including the implementation of a cigarette tax stamp program. 4. That such a program would facilitate the control and tracking of cigarettes imported into American Samoa and would be cost-effective. In support of its recommendation to implement a cigarette tax stamp program, the feasibility study‟s report: Discusses the current regulatory environment in American Samoa regarding the importation and sale of cigarettes into the territory Examines possible sources of cigarettes smuggled into American Samoa Explains what a cigarette tax stamp is and how it works Discusses how a cigarette tax stamp program in American Samoa would work and what would be needed to implement this program Estimates the costs involved in establishing this program and its potential economic benefits Discusses cigarette tax stamp programs in place in several states in the U.S. (especially Hawaii, which could serve as a model for American Samoa) The study report‟s CD also contains information on where and how to purchase and/or obtain tax stamping machines and tax stamps as well as further technical assistance (in the “Resources” file). Details: American Samoa: American Samoa Community Cancer Network, 2011. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 22, 2013 at: http://tiotala.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AS_cig_tax_stamp_study_report.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://tiotala.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/AS_cig_tax_stamp_study_report.pdf Shelf Number: 129481 Keywords: Cigarette TaxesIllegal ProductsTobacco Smuggling (American Samoa) |
Author: Onwuka, Chioma Joy Title: The Situation of Medicines Counterfeiting in Africa Summary: This background document aims to show the current situation of poor quality medicines in Africa with a particular emphasis on medicines counterfeiting. It discusses the extent of the problem, the impact of low quality medicines and strategies in place to curb them as well as barriers that have been faced in fighting medicines counterfeiting. There is a dearth of information on the real extent of medicines counterfeiting in Africa. However, the few documented evidence as included in this background document which may serve as useful baseline show that the problem of poor quality medicines, particularly medicines counterfeiting is on the increase and that almost a half of medicines in some regions of Africa may be counterfeit. This increase in medicines counterfeiting is linked to a variety of causes among which include the chaotic nature of most pharmaceutical markets in Africa, leaky supply chain systems, scarcity and/ or erratic medicines supply, high cost of medicines, vested interests both on the part of the regulatory officials and the counterfeiters, weak laws and lack of enforcement of existing laws, high level of corruption, low literacy rates and a lack of coordinated response from key stakeholders such as the health professionals to this illicit crime. The increased diversion of such medicines as anti-malarials from the public to the private sector as revealed in a study by Roger Bate show that this may constitute a significant opportunity for trade in counterfeit medicines (Taylor, 2010) It is difficult to link death or lack of response to treatment to medicines counterfeiting especially in Africa where there is significant under reporting and where other factors such as contamination of drinking water supply, disease complication, malnutrition, failure to complete the course of treatment or even a belief in curses or the supernatural are more likely to be linked to death. However, its impact is obvious when it causes easily observable mass tragedies. Available evidence show that the negative impacts of medicines counterfeiting is enormous. Medicines counterfeiting undermines the ability of Research and Development (R&D) based companies to invest in future innovations, reduces public trust in health care providers and may lead to importation of costlier branded medicines which may be perceived by the patients as been more potent. It causes wastage of scarce resources especially in most of the African countries where patients are forced to pay out of pocket for these ineffective medicines. It also presents a huge loss to the genuine manufacturers who continually spend more to develop technologies to thwart medicines counterfeiting. The health risks arising from the use of counterfeited medicines cannot be under estimated. Its effect ranges from treatment failures, development of adverse drug reaction, increased disease severity, development of complication, development of drug resistance to even deaths. Significant steps have been taken to fight medicines counterfeiting by some African governments and their regulatory bodies, health professional organisations and international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and INTERPOL. However, there remains a need to ensure a zero tolerance to medicines counterfeiting as it appears that curbing this illicit crime is primary to any significant improvements that may be made in the millennium development goals. Health professionals are uniquely positioned in this fight and must rise up to the challenge to increase the awareness of this problem and implement definitive strategies towards curbing it. Details: Ferney Voltaire, France: World Health Professions Alliance WHPA, 2010. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2014 at: http://www.whpa.org/Background_medicines_counterfeiting_in_Africa_Chioma_Jo_Onwuka11-2010.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Africa URL: http://www.whpa.org/Background_medicines_counterfeiting_in_Africa_Chioma_Jo_Onwuka11-2010.pdf Shelf Number: 133280 Keywords: Counterfeit Medicines (Africa) Counterfeit Products Counterfeiting Health Care Illegal Products |
Author: Furtick, Katie Title: The Effect of Cigarette Tax Rates on Illicit Trade: Lessons Learned in Canada Summary: U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing to raise the federal cigarette tax by nearly $1.00 per pack, hoping to bring in additional tax revenue to help fund universal preschool. Likewise, last year legislators in Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Hampshire put forth - and passed - proposals to increase their state's cigarette tax. Such proposals to increase cigarette or tobacco taxes are a politically expedient way to add to state or federal coffers while ostensibly reducing consumption. Since 2000, U.S. states have increased state cigarette tax rates more than 100 times and, generally, smoking prevalence in the U.S. has continued to decline, but is this decline caused by the increase in taxes? If so, what would happen to tobacco consumption if tax rates on cigarettes are cut? An understandably instinctive answer is that consumption would rise, as the price of cigarettes would presumably fall with the tax cut. However, this instinctive answer assumes that smokers purchase all of their cigarettes through legal means where the sale is taxed. In reality, this is not necessarily the case. Taxes have been shown to increase the size of black markets and to cause economic activity to move underground as price-sensitive individuals look for creative ways to evade taxation. Studies have shown that in the tobacco industry, consumers willingness to switch from smoking legally purchased cigarettes and tobacco to contraband products increases with tax hikes. Econometric analysis conducted by Jean-Francois Ouellet, Associate Professor of Marketing at HEC Montreal, and his co-authors Mariachiara Restuccia, Alexandre Tellier and Caroline Lacroix, found that each additional dollar in final applicable taxes raises the propensity to resort to consuming contraband cigarettes by 5.1 percent. This is consistent with the literature pertaining to counterfeit products - that for a product yielding the same benefit, consumers will typically consider a lower-priced option despite the fact that it is illegal. And where there is consumer demand for cheaper products, despite legality, there is profit incentive for players to provide those products on the black market. High cigarette taxes lead to inflated prices, which allow smugglers to profit from bringing cigarettes out of lower-taxed areas and re-selling them into higher-taxed jurisdictions. For instance, in the United States, cigarette prices differ from state to state depending on the states' cigarette tax regimes. Therefore, cigarettes sold in states with low tax rates can be bought and re-sold on the black market in states with high tax rates, yielding a profit for the seller. High taxes also increase the incentive for producing illegal cigarettes completely outside the tax regime. In this case, cigarettes are produced in illegal, unregulated factories and sold on the black market. The sum effect of these factors suggests that it is possible that rather than reducing cigarette consumption, high taxes might shift some consumption from the legal to the black market - that is, to smuggled and/or illegally produced cigarettes. The corollary of this is that tax cuts could drive out illicit trade without increasing overall cigarette consumption. Due to its dramatically varied cigarette taxation rates over the past two decades, Canada has witnessed first-hand the effects that taxes can have on illegal tobacco sales. It therefore provides an excellent case study of the effects of both increasing and decreasing such taxes. This policy brief begins with some background on tobacco taxes in Canadian history. It then analyzes how various changes in the law, both tax increases and cuts, have affected illicit trade, informing policy-makers on likely effects of taxation. Details: Los Angeles: Reason Foundation, 2014. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Policy Brief 113: Accessed April 7, 2015 at: http://reason.org/files/cigarette_tax_illicit_trade.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://reason.org/files/cigarette_tax_illicit_trade.pdf Shelf Number: 135178 Keywords: Black MarketCigarette SmugglingCigarette TaxesCigarettes (Canada)ContrabandIllegal ProductsTobacco |
Author: Edwards, Charlie Title: On Tap: Organised Crime and the Illicit Trade in Tobacco, Alcohol and Pharmaceuticals in the UK Summary: The illicit trade in tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals is often more attractive to organised criminals than, for example, drug trafficking, given that it is a low-risk and high-value activity. The high profit margins associated with illicit trade are used to fund other criminal activities - a fact not widely understood by the British public. The true scale of the illicit trade in the UK is hard to determine, but not impossible to measure. On Tap is the culmination of a twelve-month study on illicit trade conducted in three regions of the UK - the northwest, east and southwest of England. It provides the first in-depth investigation of the intersection of organised crime and illicit trade in tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals, and suggests a number of steps the government and other actors should take to combat the problem. Details: London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, 2014. 79p. Source: Internet Resource: Whitehall Report 3-14: Accessed August 5, 2015 at: https://www.rusi.org/publications/whitehallreports/ref:O54DB446798BA2/ Year: 2014 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.rusi.org/publications/whitehallreports/ref:O54DB446798BA2/ Shelf Number: 136330 Keywords: Illegal ProductsIllegal TobaccoIllicit TradeOrganized Crime |
Author: Marijnissen, Chantal Title: Facing Reality: How to halt the import of illegal timber in the EU Summary: By mid-2004, the European Commission is due to report back to the Council of the European Union with its proposals for implementing the EU Action Plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) that it released in May 2003. FERN, Greenpeace and WWF welcome the Plan and aim, with this report, to provide further recommendations to EU policy makers that will assist their efforts to ensure its successful implementation. Given the stage of development of the FLEGT Action Plan, this report will focus primarily on criminal aspects of the timber industry. However, it is important to remember that much legal logging is also highly destructive - and that ultimately it is the issue of forest sustainability that needs to be addressed. As the environmental NGO community has repeatedly shown, the impacts of illegal logging on wildlife and human welfare are devastating. Illegal logging contributes to deforestation and loss of biodiversity; fuels civil wars and threatens international security through bribery, organised crime and human rights abuses; cuts tax revenue of producer countries; destabilises international markets and undermines both legitimate business and responsible forest management. As a major buyer and importer of illegal forest products, and with European timber companies heavily implicated in this trade, the European Union has the duty as well as the power to curtail criminal activities linked to it. We believe that, to be successful, the FLEGT process cannot be restricted to voluntary mechanisms. Illegal logging has reached an unprecedented high level, proving that voluntary measures, together with industry self-regulation, have been insufficient to stop illegal logging. Therefore, although we welcome the planned EU regulation for a voluntary licensing scheme and the development of voluntary partnership agreements, we believe that the EU must develop a regulation to outlaw the import of illegally sourced timber and forest products. This regulation must be implemented at the same time as the regulation for the voluntary licensing scheme and should allow EU enforcement officials to seize illegally sourced forest products and to prosecute those that trade in them. We also ask the European Union to build political support within producer countries for the voluntary partnership agreements proposed by the FLEGT Action Plan. The negotiations of these agreements should bring together all stakeholders in producer and consumer countries in developing solutions and promoting responsible forest management. Details: Brussels: FERN, 2004. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 19, 2015 at: http://www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/pubs/reports/facing_reality.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Europe URL: http://www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/pubs/reports/facing_reality.pdf Shelf Number: 136456 Keywords: DeforestationForest ManagementForestsIllegal LoggingIllegal ProductsOffences Against the Environment |
Author: Friends of the Earth Netherlands Title: Commodity Crimes: Illicit Land Grabs, Illegal Palm Oil, and Endangered Orangutans Summary: Two of the world's leading distributors of palm oil, a staple ingredient in many consumer food and personal care products and an important feedstock for biofuels in Europe, are obtaining the commodity from illegal sources - growers who are clearing vast areas of rain forests, including sensitive orangutan habitat and protected forest reserves, in violation of the law, the criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and their financiers' investment policies. Our investigation used satellite imagery, trade data and on-the-ground reporting to uncover how, at the other end of a long chain of culpability, unwitting consumers are being sold products that are killing orangutans and destroying some of the world's last forested lands. Friends of the Earth has alerted the companies involved about the problems detailed in this report. We have also alerted financiers to their role in land grabbing previously. Their comments are summarized in this report. The chain extends thousands of miles, through many actors: - The producer, Bumitama Agri Ltd, one of the largest owners of palm oil plantations in Indonesia. - The palm oil industry's "sustainability" association, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, which does little to prevent illegal activity and has proven ineffective at providing comprehensive protections for the environment and human rights. - The traders, such as Wilmar International who distribute palm oil to a global market which is expected to more than double by 2030 - a serious and growing threat to human rights and tropical forests. - The financiers and investors - including HSBC, Rabobank, Deutsche Bank as well as the largest pension funds in the Netherlands and Sweden - who provide the needed capital for Bumitama's key shareholders like IOI and clients like Wilmar. All three companies are violating not only voluntary standards like RSPO and the financiers' own Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) policies, but also national legislation. Bumitama Agri Ltd, (BUMI.SI) is headquartered in Jakarta, Indonesia and operates through a number of subsidiaries. Bumitama controls over 200,000 hectares of plantation land bank in Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan and Riau, Indonesia. Since 1990, development of palm plantations by Bumitama and others has cleared about 16,000 square kilometers of forested land in Kalimantan. The company has been a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil since 2007, and sells to global palm oil traders including IOI Corp. of Malaysia and Wilmar International of Singapore. This investigation specifically documents that: - Bumitama has knowingly destroyed forest that is the home for endangered orangutans. In April 2013, in response to a complaint filed at the RSPO, Bumitama promised it would not clear land near forest reserves in West Kalimantan until studies were completed to appraise the land's ecological importance. These reserves host one of the largest, and last, populations of the Central Bornean orangutan in the region. However, satellite imagery shows that hundreds of hectares of peatland and forests in the area were cleared between May and September 2013. So while Bumitama was negotiating with the RSPO to address the complaint, the company continued to clear land, despite its pledge to stop the cutting. - Bumitama's actions are unpermitted. The plantation in West Kalimantan that is managed by Bumitama was cleared in violation of national laws, without permits or proper approval of the Ministry of Forestry and the Environmental Monitoring Agency. This land bank consists of at least 7,000 hectares of "ghost estates" - plantations that lack valid permits. Selling palm oil from unpermitted plantations is illegal. - Bumitama's investors knowingly or unknowingly purchased shares of an illegal operation. Prospective investors were informed through Bumitama's prospectus in April 2012 that Bumitama's expansion plans included preferential rights to manage and harvest from a plantation that was operating illegally, without the required licenses for its operation and management, and that the Hariyanto family - the majority owner of Bumitama Agri - would bear the liability risk while the permits were sorted out. Despite this admission of illegality, all the shares were sold. - After gaining control over thousands of hectares of unpermitted plantation landbank Bumitama continued the illegal production of palm oil without the necessary permits and engaged in further illegal land grabbing and clearing. Wilmar International and IOI Corp. bought shares of Bumitama despite their likely knowledge of the illegal landgrab. Before Bumitama's public offering in April 2012, IOI Corp. became one of Bumitama's controlling shareholders, with a current stake of 31 percent of the company. At the same time, Wilmar bought between 0.9 percent and 4.3 percent of shares of Bumitama's stock. This makes IOI and Wilmar not just purchasers of the palm oil illegally produced by Bumitama, but significant investors in its illegal operations. - The RSPO provides greenwash for the industry's illegal, unethical and environmentally harmful practices. The Bumitama Group, IOI Corp. and Wilmar International are all members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. They have been involved in several illegal landgrabs in Kalimantan over the past five years, but the RSPO has been unable to prevent this, nor has it taken any effective enforcement action. The revelations about Bumitama Agri in this report illustrate how palm plantation companies and commodity traders use the lack of legal enforcement, complicated transfers of land and assets, and inter-company agreements to take illegal control over land, regardless of its legal status, traditional use or ecological importance. The report also highlights the role of financiers, including banks and equity investors, in Bumitama Agri, IOI and Wilmar, and on the kind and amount of money invested in these companies, their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Policies and the responses investors gave to inquiries by Friends of the Earth on this case. The bottom line is that the current system of producing palm oil as a global commodity is unjust and unsustainable and all actors involved should take immediate action to address this. Details: Amsterdam: The Friends, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 17, 2016 at: https://milieudefensie.nl/publicaties/rapporten/comodity-crimes.-illicit-land-grabs-illegal-palm-oil-and-endangered-orangutans Year: 2013 Country: International URL: https://milieudefensie.nl/publicaties/rapporten/comodity-crimes.-illicit-land-grabs-illegal-palm-oil-and-endangered-orangutans Shelf Number: 147930 Keywords: Environmental CrimesIllegal Land GrabsIllegal Palm OilIllegal ProductsOffences Against the EnvironmentWildlife Crime |
Author: Brack, Duncan Title: Ending Global Deforestation: Policy Options for Consumer Countries Summary: Over the last decade, governments in timber-producing and timber-consuming countries have implemented a range of policies and measures aimed at improving forest governance and reducing illegal logging. One important category of measures has been attempts to exclude illegal (and sometimes unsustainable) timber products from international trade through the use of regulatory measures such as public procurement policy, licensing systems, and legal and company due diligence requirements. Yet illegal logging and the international trade in illegal timber is not the most important cause of deforestation. Clearance of forests (legal or illegal) for agriculture, often for export, is far more significant. The purpose of this report is to examine the potential applicability of the consumer-country measures used to exclude illegal timber to illegal or unsustainable agricultural products associated with deforestation: specifically, palm oil, soy, beef and leather and cocoa. The study primarily considers options open to the European Union (which is the main global importer of these commodities), but in principle they are open to other consumer-country governments too. Details: London: Chatham House; Washington, DC: Forest Trends, 2013. 89p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 20, 2016 at: https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Energy,%20Environment%20and%20Development/0913pr_deforestation.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/public/Research/Energy,%20Environment%20and%20Development/0913pr_deforestation.pdf Shelf Number: 145605 Keywords: DeforestationForestsIllegal LoggingIllegal ProductsNatural ResourcesOffenses Against the Environment |
Author: Mace, Robyn R. Title: Illicit Pesticides, Organized Crime and Supply Chain Integrity Summary: Crime prevention and criminal justice issues affect all aspects of development, including its economic, social and environmental dimensions, as well as its sustainability. In the United Nations Salvador Declaration of April 2010, Member States underlined the necessity to strengthen national crime prevention and criminal justice systems, policies and practices in combating emerging forms of crime, such as those having a significant impact on the environment, and other related serious crimes. The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) considers environmental crime and its links with other serious crimes a clear and serious threat for sustainable development, global stability and security. Since 1991, the Institute has dealt with crimes against the environment and related emerging threats through applied research, awareness, and capacity-building initiatives. In its Resolution 2012/19 entitled "Strengthening international cooperation in combating transnational organized crime in all its forms and manifestations", the Economic and Social Council "Invites the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute [] to continue to conduct, in consultation with Member States and in cooperation with other competent international entities, research on different forms of transnational organized crime", including crimes against the environment. In addition in 2013, in the European Parliament Report (2012/2117(INI)) "on organized crime, corruption and money laundering: recommendations on action and initiatives", explicit reference is made to the work of the Institute in this field, as recommendation 51 states: "The European Parliament [...] recommends joint action to prevent and combat illegal environment-related activities connected to or resulting from organized mafia-style criminal activities, also by strengthening European bodies, such as Europol and Eurojust, and international ones, such as Interpol and UNICRI [...]." In this framework, UNICRI is developing a programme aimed at enhancing an international strategy to counter serious and organized groups involved in crimes having an adverse impact on the environment, including in the trafficking of illicit pesticides. Illicit pesticides represent a lucrative activity for organized crime and a concrete threat to security, development, health and the environment, and consequently require urgent response from the national and regional authorities, as well as the international community and the United Nations. The present research paper aims at deepening the general knowledge on current trends related to illicit pesticides, identifying the actors and organized crime groups (OCGs) and networks involvement and their modus operandi, and understanding the supply chain vulnerabilities. The findings of this research paper have been discussed during an Expert Workshop with the objective of identifying good practices for detecting, investigating and prosecuting illicit pesticides related activities and, ultimately, improving capacities in countering illicit pesticides. Inputs and outcomes formulated during and after the meeting have been included in the present paper. The ultimate results of this analysis are to design a roadmap for actions outlining the follow-up activities to be implemented, to disseminate best practices, to reinforce dialogue and cooperation among stakeholders, and to enhance national and international capabilities to combat international illicit trafficking of pesticides. This policy paper is divided into four sections. The first presents an overview of the risks and impacts of illicit pesticide use on human health, livestock and food supplies, the environment, and the international agricultural trade. The second section presents data and information on actors and agents, modus operandi, observed trends, product flows and a regional profiles of the pesticides market. This section also considers trade, agricultural and food supply chain characteristics, security vulnerabilities, and protection and defense measures against organized crime groups and networks that have infiltrated international agrochemicals and pesticide markets. The third section summarizes key regulatory issues, identifies obstacles and indicates concrete actions to prevent and combat the importation, sale and use of illicit pesticides, as well as the role of the actors involved in the control and securitization of the market. The final section concludes with the role of UNICRI in addressing the issues of illicit pesticides, in particular in facilitating research, raising stakeholders' awareness, delivering training and technical assistance programmes, supporting in capacity building activities and reinforcing national and international cooperatio Details: Torino, Italy: United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), 2016. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2017 at: http://www.unicri.it/in_focus/files/The_problem_of_illicit_pesticides_low_res1.pdf Year: 2016 Country: International URL: http://www.unicri.it/in_focus/files/The_problem_of_illicit_pesticides_low_res1.pdf Shelf Number: 145248 Keywords: Crime Prevention Environmental Crime Illegal ProductsIllicit Pesticides Illicit Products Offenses Against the Environment Organized Crime Supply Chains Security |
Author: U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations Title: Cigarette Tax Evasion: A Second Look Summary: In 1977 the Advisory Commission on intergovernmental Relations issued a report on cigarette bootlegging recommending that Congress make smuggling cigarettes across state lines a federal crime. Due, in part, to the Commission's efforts such legislation was passed and signed into law in 1978 (PL 95-575). In 1983, the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations directed the Commission to develop current estimates of cigarette tax losses, particularly those losses attributable to organized interstate smuggling, and to recommend what actions the national or state governments could take to further reduce these losses. The Commission notes in this report that the magnitude of commercial interstate smuggling has declined dramatically since the 1970% largely due to the 1978 Contraband Cigarette Act. The Commission also notes that tax rate disparities among the states have widened since 1980, suggesting the need for continued federal law enforcement to prevent a resurgence of cigarette smuggling. Finally, the Commission identifies the illegal sale of cigarettes on military bases and Indian reservations as the major sources of current revenue losses for most states-problems that may require legislative or administrative action by the national government. In this report the Commission seeks to illuminate an issue of intergovernmental concern, both in terms of past actions and future requirements Details: Washington, DC: The Commission, 2003. 123p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 10, 2017 at: http://www.library.unt.edu/gpo/acir/Reports/policy/a-100.pdf Year: 2003 Country: United States URL: http://www.library.unt.edu/gpo/acir/Reports/policy/a-100.pdf Shelf Number: 131186 Keywords: Cigarette Smuggling Cigarettes Illegal ProductsTax Evasion |
Author: Morissette, Charles Title: The underground economy in Canada, 1992-2011 Summary: The aim of the Underground Economy (UE) study is to provide information on the extent of underground economic activity in Canada and the sources of these activities. The impact of these activities on the measurement of published gross domestic product (GDP) for Canada is also of concern. The measurement of the underground economy at Statistics Canada is not new. The first study was carried out by Berger (1986)Note1, followed by Gervais (1994)Note2, then Terefe, Barber-Dueck and Lamontagne (2011)Note3 and Morissette (2012)Note4. The current study is a continuation of this work, and draws heavily on it, specifically the work of Gervais (1994) and Terefe, Barber-Dueck and Lamontagne (2011). The current study is largely comparable to the one published in September 2012 for the period 1992 to 2009. It incorporates the revised definitions and classifications used by the Canadian System of National Accounts (CSNA) that were introduced in October 2012. The results are also more timely, covering the period 1992 to 2011. Finally, a volume measure of UE activity is introduced. Readers should be careful in interpreting the results of this study. First, estimates presented give an upper bound. In order to derive these bounds, assumptions were made to estimate the maximum potential underground activity beyond what is already included in GDP using standard methods. Second, by its very nature, it is difficult to obtain information on UE activities so that the estimates necessarily rely on assumptions, weak indicative information and various indirect methods. Third, the official GDP already includes some implicit and explicit adjustments for UE activity.Note5 For these reasons the estimates calculated in this study cannot simply be added to the official GDP to arrive at a measure of GDP including UE activity. The report is organized as follows. The next section deals with the definition and scope of the study. This is followed by a section on data sources and methods. Results are presented in Section 4 for GDP aggregates of the expenditure, income and industry accounts for selected years over the period 1992 to 2011, but available on request for all years. The report concludes with a summary and recommendations for future work. Included in appendices are various statistical tables and detailed methodology Details: Ottawa, Ontario : Statistics Canada, National Economic Accounts Division, 2014. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Paper: Accessed June 29, 2017 at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/13-604-m/13-604-m2014073-eng.htm Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/13-604-m/13-604-m2014073-eng.htm Shelf Number: 146465 Keywords: Illegal Goods Illegal ProductsTax Evasion Underground Economy |