{"id":236,"date":"2021-07-12T10:54:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T10:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/?p=236"},"modified":"2025-04-29T10:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T10:25:22","slug":"pre-budget-2022-submission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/2021\/07\/12\/pre-budget-2022-submission\/","title":{"rendered":"Excise increases on tobacco will push consumers to growing black market, retailers warn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Attachment\norders required to make deterrents to smuggle tobacco more robust<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuous excise increases on tobacco are driving Irish smokers towards a growing black market, fuelling significant growth in smuggling activity. That is according to Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS)<\/a>, who have outlined why Budget 2022 should not increase excise on tobacco products considering the unfair \u2018competition\u2019 legitimate retailers face from criminal gangs exploiting the demand for illegal tobacco products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenting on the\norganisation\u2019s Budget submission to Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD,\nnational spokesperson for RAS, Benny Gilsenan said: \u201cAn excise increase on\ntobacco products in Budget 2022 will only serve to further damage an already\nweakened retail sector and will provide increased opportunity for large-scale\nsmuggling and ant smuggling of tobacco products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe policy informing\nBudget 2022 must account for the need to create a sustainable, flourishing, and\nlegitimate retail sector as we emerge from the pandemic. As retailers, we\ncontinue to compete with a very active black market in tobacco products which\naccounts for 15% of all cigarette packs in Ireland not to mention the 9% of\ncigarette packs smoked which are bought in from other jurisdictions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Retailers concern\naround return of ant smuggling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Gilsenan added: \u201cThere\nis genuine concern amongst retailers that increased demand for the black market\nspurred by excise increases will lead to an accelerated return of ant smuggling\nas international travel resumes. Ant smuggling is typically carried out by\nsmugglers travelling on low-cost airlines to purchase cigarettes in countries\nwhere it can cost as little as \u20ac2 for a pack of 20 cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnt smugglers are\nbringing tobacco products back into Ireland for sale on the streets for less\nthan half of the Irish retail price, making it impossible for legitimate\nretailers like myself to compete. We have already witnessed eight significant\ntobacco seizures by Revenue at our airports so far this year and any increase\nin excise duty in Budget 2022 will only push more of the public to take\nadvantage of this illegal option that bypasses the local shopkeeper and damages\nrevenues to the State.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attachment orders<\/strong> required to make smuggling deterrents\nmore robust<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only 55 cases of illicit tobacco trade resulted in prosecution\nthroughout 2020 which is in direct contrast to the high volume of illicit\ncigarettes and tobacco seized by Revenue over the same period valued at over\n\u20ac37m. The scale of the problem was further emphasised last week with three\nmajor tobacco seizures by Revenue at Dublin Port valued in excess of \u20ac11.1m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Gilsenan concluded: \u201cThe lack of prosecutions versus the volume of\nillicit cigarettes, indicates that the deterrents for the sophisticated\ncriminal gangs and small-time criminals behind the black market are\nineffective, with potential profits outweighing any penalties that might be\nimposed. Budget 2022, in the context of excisable goods, should focus on\nrendering existing enforcement regulations more robust by introducing\nattachment orders to violations, thereby providing the means to the State to\nrecoup losses to the Exchequer driven by smuggling. Recent large-scale\ncigarette and tobacco seizures in the summer of 2021 point to criminals getting\nready to compete aggressively with legal retailers in Ireland. Let\u2019s not give\nthem that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download the Retailers Against Smuggling Pre-Budget 2022 Submission here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attachment orders required to make deterrents to smuggle tobacco more robust Continuous excise increases on tobacco are driving Irish smokers towards a growing black market, fuelling significant growth in smuggling activity. That is according to Retailers Against Smuggling (RAS), who have outlined why Budget 2022 should not increase excise on tobacco products considering the unfair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,28],"tags":[25,45,46,47,48,49],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-news","category-illicit-cigarettes","tag-benny-gilsenan","tag-budget-2022","tag-dublin-port","tag-minister-for-finance","tag-minister-paschal-donohoe-td","tag-revenue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","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=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":571,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions\/571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.retailersagainstsmuggling.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}