Smoky Smuggling Survey

By Londonist_Laura Last edited 211 months ago
Smoky Smuggling Survey
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Not only does it ruin your health, make you stink and ultimately kill you, but smoking is now causing even more widespread havoc with tobacco smuggling threatening to "force 30% of corner shops in London to close", according to a recent survey of 1,000 retailers.

Shop cigarette sales have fallen due to the availability of cut-price illegal tobacco, the Retailers Against Smuggling trade group alleges.

With smugglers able to offer cigarettes for half the price the shops can, the group want politicians to wake up to the reality of the situation and cut tax on tobacco in the next Budget.

Spokesman Mahendra Jadeja said:

"What the government needs to grasp is that the only reason smugglers target the UK is because the high tax levels in this country provide them with the greatest potential profit in the EU"

The government, of course, refused to comment. Probably too busy counting large piles of money.

Last Updated 10 August 2006