Effective solutions needed to combat cigarette smuggling

	Southwest border: Cigarette smuggling is still a problem amid social distancing
	Long An: facing difficulties in cigarette smuggling
	Long An: facing difficulties in dealing with cigarette smuggling

Delegates shares difficulties in anti-cigarette smuggling. Photo: T.H

Turbulent development

VTA’s President Ho Le Nghia said that over the past year, the anti-cigarette smuggling work has achieved positive results thanks to the direction of the Government. The National Steering Committee 389 and competent agencies have regularly conducted investigations at border gates, supervised markets across the country, and detected many cases of illicit cigarette trade.

“In the last two years, the circulation of goods in the country and cross-border trade has been strictly controlled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The anti-cigarette smuggling work has seen remarkable results. The quantity of smuggled cigarettes seized in 2020 doubled compared with 2019, the market share of the item also decreased by about 2%," Nghia said.

Despite great efforts in this work, cigarette smuggling has developed complicatedly since the end of 2021 and early 2022 after the social distancing period.

From March 15, the Government has decided to completely open the domestic market and international trade. Business production, immigration, import and export activities have resumed. This poses potential risks that smugglers abuse border, sea, air routes and domestic markets for smuggling, trade fraud, illegal transportation of banned goods, fake goods and goods infringing intellectual property rights.

At the seminar, the speakers said that the situation is caused by many factors, including the competitive advantage and profit of smuggled cigarette products.

The leader of BAT Tobacco Company said the profit earned from a Jet cigarette pack smuggled from the border gate is about VND7,000-8,000, triple compared with other legal tobacco products in the same segment. The cigarette is illegally transported to the country without origin and cannot be controlled, causing serious harm to consumers' health, and affecting social security, safety and order.

Smuggled cigarettes seized by Dong Thap Customs Department. Photo: V.H

In recent years, the illegal transportation of cigarettes with Vietnamese labels from Cambodia to Vietnam to outsmart competent agencies has taken place. Smugglers often carry less than 1,500 packs to avoid criminal prosecution.

In the domestic market, smuggled foreign cigarettes are still sold at restaurants, cafes, or in shops. In addition, objective factors such as complicated border routes, sophisticated tricks of transportation, or hiring border residents to ship goods have caused difficulties for competent agencies in performing duties.

Providing comprehensive solutions

According to the leader of the Market Surveillance Department, the cigarette trafficking of Jet and Hero Cigarette has taken place in southwestern border provinces and cities, accounting for over 80% of the market share of smuggled cigarettes, and 84% of total illegal cigarettes imported across other routes in the country. Other quantities of cigarette are transported across provinces with borders neighboring Laos and China.

To effectively prevent smuggling and revenue loss, the representatives of VTA and leaders of tobacco production companies and the market surveillance units proposed comprehensive solutions to promote this task.

Accordingly, it is necessary to strengthen education for consumers, small traders and distributors not to support smuggling rings; mobilize human resources to closely inspect and control border gates and markets in these provinces; deduct a part of the funds from the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund for the fight against smuggled tobacco; propose the Government to work with Cambodian Government to solve cigarette smuggling from Cambodian territory to Vietnam.

Regarding excise tax, businesses suggest not increasing the tax to allow businesses to recover after the Covid-19 pandemic, to avoid an increase that destabilizes the market as well as creates more space for tobacco smuggling.

Businesses hopes that the Government consider a roadmap in line with the orientation of the law-making program for the 15th National Assembly, which means that tax increases should only be considered from 2024 onwards, helping legal cigarette companies to enhance competitiveness and create sustainability of social security.