Ireland loses $144 million in lost cigarette taxes
Smuggled cigarettes from Eastern Europe causes 100 Million Euros ($144 Million) in tax revenue losses in Ireland. 38 Million cigarettes are smuggled through the Dublin Airport each year.
Source: John Burke and Ian Kehoe, “Cigarette smuggling costs exchequer €100,” Sunday Business Post, November 4, 2007(accessed: November 5, 2007).
20 to 30 percent of all cigarettes consumed in Russia are smuggled
Source: Jennifer M. Freedman, “Governments Trying to Battle Illegal Tobacco Trade,” Bloomberg News, February 12, 2008,(accessed: February 12, 2008).
1.6 million packs seized in Singapore in 2007
Source: Julia Ng, “ICA reports 83% jump in smuggling cases at checkpoints in 2007,” Channel News Asia, January 24, 2008,(accessed: January 28, 2008)
1.2 million packs seized in Singapore in 2006
Source: Noor Mohd Aziz, “46% jump in number of cigarette, tobacco smuggling cases in 2006,” Channel News Asia, February 1, 2007,(accessed: February 2, 2007).
360,000 packs seized in Singapore in 2005
Source: Noor Mohd Aziz, “46% jump in number of cigarette, tobacco smuggling cases in 2006,” Channel News Asia, February 1, 2007,(accessed: February 2, 2007).
$3.15 for a smuggled pack of cigarettes in Singapore
Source: AP, ” Singapore crackdown on cigarette smuggling,” Star (Malaysia), August 28, 2006.
Cigarette smuggling in England
The BBC has an article on the cigarette smuggling industry in the United Kingdom.
From BBC News:
The trade in illegal cigarettes in England is big business.
Customs officers seized more than 50 million illicit cigarettes and nearly 4,250 kilos of hand rolling tobacco in the West Midlands area in 2007.
Of these hauls, 70% were found to be [...]
Cigarette smuggling in New York state
With a tax proposal that would make a pack of cigarette cost $9, New York officials are worried about various methods to smuggle cigarettes.
From the AP:
Cigarettes are sold tax free on tribal lands in New York, and the savings are eye-popping. Once lawmakers approve the state’s latest hike, crafted last week,
smokers will be able to [...]
Cigarette smuggling leads to $50 billion in lost tax revenue
Representatives from 150 countries are meeting in Geneva to discuss the issue of cigarette smuggling on the black market.
Bloomberg News reports on the impact of this activity:
Estimates about the financial impact of the illegal tobacco trade vary. About 600 billion cigarettes, almost 11 percent of the 5.8 trillion cigarettes sold globally in 2006, entered the [...]
Purchasing cigarettes one at a time on the black market
The Chicago Tribune write about the practice of purchasing “loosies”, or cigarettes purchased one at a time instead of the entire pack.
Gregory Laurence walked into a West Side gas station last month with a handful of change and what’s become a routine request in some parts of the city. Offering a dollar’s worth of quarters, [...]
