Tobacco tax up in smoke

Police are making headway in dismantling the illicit cigarette smuggling syndicates costing the country millions of rands in lost revenue annually. According to SARS spokesperson Adrian Lackay, the 2012-13 financial year saw 2580 seizures of illicit cigarettes (138 million sticks, with a value of R63.4m), and 22 seizures of counterfeit cigarettes (666510 sticks, with a value of R467 860).

 

Lackay said they were aware that a significant number of illicit cigarettes were consumed in South Africa each year. “This loss occurs through the smuggling of cigarettes into the country from across our borders and the diversion into the local market of cigarettes that are earmarked for export.

 

“The prevalence of the trade in and consumption of illicit cigarettes in the South African market undermines the government’s efforts to reduce the negative health impacts of cigarette smoking ,” he said. Last week, police in Limpopo made a major breakthrough with the seizure of counterfeit cigarettes worth more than R3.5m at a village near the Beitbridge border post. These were seized in a separate incident and preliminary investigations linked the contraband cigarettes to having been smuggled from Zimbabwe.