Rising tobacco taxes ‘will encourage cigarette smuggling’, say Qld experts

Australia is poised to become a more lucrative market for illicit tobacco traders, experts say. A team of researchers from Queensland says smuggling is a comparatively low-risk criminal activity, and that the regular price hikes for legal cigarettes will boost the demand for black market tobacco in Australia. Last August, the Labor government set in motion a series of tobacco tax increases of 12.5 per cent each year for four years, commencing December 2013.

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-21/researchers-say-rising-tobacco-taxes-will-encourage-smugglers/5468696