{"id":220,"date":"2020-08-05T08:54:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T08:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=220"},"modified":"2020-08-05T08:54:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T08:54:23","slug":"ireland-remains-a-target-for-tobacco-smugglers-as-illegal-cigarettes-seized-increases-fivefold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2020\/08\/05\/ireland-remains-a-target-for-tobacco-smugglers-as-illegal-cigarettes-seized-increases-fivefold\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland remains a target for tobacco smugglers as illegal cigarettes seized increases fivefold"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Revenue seized 31.2 million cigarettes during first six\nmonths of 2020 compared to 6.6 million in the same period last year<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) have expressed unease over the high number of illegal cigarettes seized by Revenue during the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year. An analysis of Revenue\u2019s seizures by RAS revealed that there was an almost fivefold increase in cigarettes seized, from 6,659,500 (H1 2019) to 31,202,600 (H1 2020), indicating that Ireland continues to be a target for tobacco smugglers in spite of restrictions on travel. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting,\nnational spokesperson for RAS and Dublin based retailer, Benny Gilsenan said:\n\u201cWe commend and fully support the hard work undertaken by Revenue and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na\nin the fight against illicit trade. However, the smuggling of tobacco remains a\nsignificant concern to registered and legitimate tobacco retailers across\nIreland, whose legal cigarette trade can account for 20 \u2013 30 per cent of their\nbusiness. The fact that over 31 million illegal cigarettes have been\nconfiscated by Revenue during the first half of this year alone demonstrates\nthat criminals continue to target Ireland and are adapting their methods in\nresponse to restrictions on personal travel by focusing their efforts on large\nconsignments of smuggled products. It is just another indicator as to why it is\nbecoming increasingly hard for legitimate retailers to compete with the black\nmarket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\ndemonstrates that while current travel restrictions due to COVID-19 have\nresulted in low levels of Non-Irish Duty Paid (NIDP) entering the market, it is\nclear that criminal enterprises are continuing to seek out ways of ensuring smuggled\nproducts enter the country. We believe that there is still more that\ncan be done and that is why in our recent pe-budget submission to the Minister\nfor Finance, RAS called for the detection and seizure of illegal tobacco\nproducts to remain a priority for Irish authorities, with increased awareness\nof the elaborate means criminal gangs are utilising to transport these huge volumes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nRevenue\u2019s 2019 Annual Report, its Illegal Tobacco Products Research Surveys\nrevealed that 15 per cent of cigarette packs held by smokers surveyed were\nclassified as illegal. This represents a potential loss to the Exchequer of\n\u20ac242 million in 2019 on 24 million illegal cigarette packs.[1]<\/a> The same Revenue survey\nfound that 12 per cent of the Roll Your Own tobacco packs held by smokers\nsurveyed were illegal in 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr\nGilsenan added: \u201cThe increase in the number of cigarettes seized in 2020\ncompared to the same period in 2019, and indeed compared to 2019 in total, indicates\nthat an even greater number of cigarettes could potentially be making its way\nto the black market. This increase in the scale of the seizures highlights the\nimportance of the work by Revenue and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and the need for a\ncontinued focus on tackling illicit trade by the authorities. This criminality\nis directly affecting livelihoods and local retail businesses across the\ncountry who are already facing enormous pressures as a result of COVID-19.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> https:\/\/www.revenue.ie\/en\/corporate\/documents\/research\/tobacco-surveys-2019.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Revenue seized 31.2 million cigarettes during first six months of 2020 compared to 6.6 million in the same period last year Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS) have expressed unease over the high number of illegal cigarettes seized by Revenue during the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year. An analysis of Revenue\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}