From: The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
THE number of counterfeit cigarettes in Australia has doubled in the past six months, with one in every 12 cigarettes being sold now a fake, a report claims.
The increase comes ahead of federal government plans for plain packaging and if correct could cost the government more than $2 billion a year in lost excise.
A report by Deloitte – commissioned by tobacco companies – said the black market for fake cigarettes that imitate genuine brands has gone from 4 to 8 per cent of all sales in the six months to June and loose tobacco from 5 to 9 per cent.
Last year Deloitte estimated illegal imports cost the government $1.1 billion in lost revenue from taxes, meaning that loss could double this year if the situation remains.
British American Tobacco spokesman Scott McIntyre said plain packaging would make it easier for criminals to counterfeit packets.
“If all cigarette packs look exactly the same, in the same colour and without their logos, crime gangs have a blueprint to reproduce illegal products and sell them on the black market,” he said. “Criminals will continue to make millions of dollars at the expense of taxpayers and honest retailers.
“If plain packaging is introduced and all cigarette packs look the same then even honest retailers and authorities will have trouble distinguishing legal tobacco products from illegal ones.”
But Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor has dismissed the research as biased because it was paid for by the tobacco companies.
“The bogus claims made by Big Tobacco about the prevalence of illegal tobacco simply don’t make sense,” Mr O’Connor said.
“Big Tobacco’s original ‘report’ was baseless and deceptive and this ‘update’ simply perpetuates that misinformation. It is vital to remember that British American Tobacco, Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco paid for this research.
“Big Tobacco regularly quotes from reports it commissions rather than the independent research, because independent research does not back its bogus claims.”
He said the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed 0.2 per cent of the population used illegal tobacco products more than half the time they smoked.
