Malaysians smoked eight billion contraband cigarettes in 2012

From: The Star

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians smoked some 23 billion sticks of cigarettes in 2012, of which almost eight billion sticks are contraband.

That means that almost four out of every 10 packs of cigarettes sold in the country are smuggled, revealed the Illicit Cigarette Survey 2012 commissioned by the Con­federation of Malaysian Tobacco Manu­facturers (CMTM).

According to the survey, the proportion of illegal cigarette trade had increased from 20% in 2002 to 34.5% in 2012.

The Asia-11 Illicit Tobacco Indicator 2012 report estimated that the annual tax loss for the Govern­ment from the illicit consumption cost more than RM1.9bil in 2012.

An industry source said that with the current prices of duty-paid cigarettes, those smoking contraband now cut across all demographics and were not confined to the lower income groups or foreign workers.

A check by The Star last month found that contraband cigarettes were sold openly on the streets, with many vendors and peddlers offering the items for a fraction of the price of the duty-paid packets.

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