Forty million cigarettes were bought illegally last year

The black market cigarette trade cost the public coffers some €10 million in uncollected tax revenue last year, with a report estimating that around 40 million cigarettes were bought illegally in Malta.

The report, about the illicit cigarette market in the EU, estimates that the number of cigarettes bought on the street in Malta decreased by 1.8 percentage points in the share of illegal trade from the previous year while lost taxes is estimated to have decreased by around €2 million.

The illegal share is 7.9 per cent of the total consumption.

The illicit cigarette trade cost EU economies €9.5 billion in lost taxes during 2019, a slight decrease over the previous year.

The KPMG Stella report revealed changes in patterns of counterfeiting and contraband cigarettes across European markets as states strengthen efforts to curb illegal inflows.

In all, 38.9 billion counterfeit and contraband cigarettes were consumed in the EU last year, continuing a downward trend of around 4.7 billion over 2018.

Illicit cigarette consumption went down to 7.9 per cent of total annual consumption. The findings suggest that anti-smuggling operations in the EU are successful in seizing around a tenth of...