Botswana: Illicit Tobacco Trade Rife – Madigele
Tutume — Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Madigele, has urged Batswana to help in the fight against illegal trade of tobacco products. Speaking at the World NO Tobacco commemoration in Nata recently, Dr Madigele noted that some companies had been known to use loopholes in tobacco control laws to weaken governance systems and indulge in illegal trade of tobacco products. He indicated that that his ministry and other stakeholders such as Botswana Police Service and Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) were fighting illegal cross border importation of tobacco products.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201506020418.html
Lear More
How to Spot Counterfeit Beauty Products
The latest in beauty news has many a gal freaking out about what’s really lurking in her products. A new report by the City of London Police urges consumers to think twice before buying beauty items online, explaining that there’s been a rise in fake makeup products being sold online.
While it’s bad enough that you might think you’re buying a legit brand name item only to have received a knock-off, the situation is much worse: It turns out that some of these counterfeit products, from mascara to perfume, have been laced with scary substances like arsenic and lead.
http://stylecaster.com/beauty-high/how-to-spot-counterfeit-beauty-products/
Lear More
Punitive taxation, extreme tobacco control regulations fuel growth in illegal cigarette trade in India
Excise duty on legal cigarette industry has doubled in the last four years and has impacted the legal industry as well as provided a huge arbitrage opportunity to illegal operatorsThe combined effect of high and discriminatory central and state level taxation has impacted the legal cigarette industry, sub-optimised government’s revenue collection and provided a huge fillip to the illegal cigarette trade in the country.
Lear More
Ratification of WHO protocol a must to stop illicit tobacco trade
Every tenth cigarette consumed globally is part of the illicit tobacco trade. While the smuggling of contraband tobacco products across national borders has always been profitable, the illegal tobacco trade is now the trademark for organised crime networks, which may also be involved in drugs, human and arms trafficking, as well as terrorism. Cigarettes are becoming a preferred item to smuggle because it’s easy and unlike smuggling narcotics, punishment for smuggling tobacco is less severe. The tobacco industry claims that high taxes drive smuggling. It also lobbies governments to keep tobacco taxes low. However, experience from many countries shows that there is no direct correlation between high taxes and smuggling.
Lear MoreTaking the fight to cigarette smugglers
The financial impact of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes due to unpaid customs duties as well as unpaid taxes such as value added taxes and excise duties is immense: 10 billion EUR, some figures indicate up to 12.5 billion EUR that are lost to national and EU budgets each year. Smuggling does not only concern counterfeit but also genuine cigarettes that are smuggled into the European Union (EU). A single container of smuggled cigarettes causes an average loss of customs duty and value added tax of about 1.5 million EUR. The financial damage for countries with higher taxes on tobacco products such as the United Kingdom is even more severe.
http://www.neurope.eu/blog/taking-the-fight-to-cigarette-smugglers/
Lear MoreCigarette Smuggling Is Everyone’s Business
At the border checkpoint between the Spanish town La Linea de la Concepcion and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar where they will buy tax-free cigarettes for just €2.20 a pack. No one is interested in buying the well-known brands. They prefer the so-called illicit whites – the brand name cigarettes from an unknown origin. They will buy cartons of these illicit whites. Before they cross the border back into Spain, they will empty out the cartons and hide the cigarette packs on their body. Those who manage to return to the Spanish side of the border, head to the coffee kiosks at a small square nearby. There, they take out the packs and hand them over to the men working in the smuggling chain. The cigarette packs are destined to travel safely all over Spain.Persons who are unemployed are also engaged in this.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/cigarette-smuggling-is-everyones-business/
Lear MoreTobacco smuggling: the canary in the cal mine of organised crime
In the year 2013, according to the Tobacco industry’s figures ,58.6 billion of illicit cigarettes were that means these huge majority of these cigarettes is smuggled. Only 5.8% of consumed illicit cigarettes are counterfeit, the rest is contraband (including the so called “Illicit Whites”). On top of the consumed illicit cigarettes, around 4 billion of illicit cigarettes are seized each year. The consumed illicit cigarettes make up for around 10.5% of overall consumption in the EU, which is at around 560 billion cigarettes per year. In the European Union, every year around 12.9 billion Euros of turnover with illicit cigarettes. Usually, tobacco manufacturers have high profit margins at around 40% of turnover (or higher). Hence, the European cigarette smokers (conservatively estimated) finance smugglers and counterfeiters of cigarettes with around 5 billion Euros each year.
http://www.neurope.eu/blog/tobacco-smuggling-the-canary-in-the-coal-mine-of-organized-crime/
Lear MoreTobacco smuggling
Tobacco smuggling has a significant impact on public health and the revenue benefits of increased taxation. An increase in taxation of 1 per cent would be expected to decrease tobacco consumption by 0.4 per cent. The tobacco industry cites smuggling as a reason not to increase tobacco taxes but it should be remembered that in years when the minister of the day has not increased tobacco taxes, the tobacco industry itself has increased the price in order to boost its own profits. The international tobacco industry itself has had to pay billions of euro in settlements and fines for its role in smuggling. There should be the introduction of an environmental levy on tobacco to help offset the environmental damage caused by tobacco.
http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/tobacco-smuggling-1.2232361
Lear More
Chinese counterfeits leave Ghanaian textiles hanging by a thread
Wax-printed fabric, a source of national pride that has come to represent African fashion worldwide, plays a vital role in weddings, funerals, and traditional events throughout Ghana. Any special occasion involves a trip to market to pick the fabric before taking it to a tailor, like Ms. Addy, to create a custom-made outfit. But over the past decade, the country’s textile industry has collapsed. While there were once more than a dozen homegrown companies printing colorful fabrics, just a few remain. The industry, which until the 1990s employed 30,000 workers, now provides a mere 3,000 jobs, according to national data. The problem, textile manufacturers say, is counterfeit cloth made in massive quantities in China and smuggled into Ghana.
Lear More
Turkish diplomatic personnel apprehended while smuggling cigarettes, drugs
A.İ, who worked at the Turkish Consulate in İran’s city of Urmia was apprehended on March 4 by police in the Erciş district of Van province, who seized a large quantity of heroin from the vehicle, which had diplomatic license plates, according to Taraf.
A.İ. was arrested and suspended by the Foreign Ministry, which had previously launched an internal investigation into possible illegal activities by diplomatic personnel, the details of which were not released to the public.