Focus on preventing illicit tobacco trade

The prevention of cigarette smuggling is one of five key tasks for Vietnam’s Market Management Agency this year, according to a VietnamNet story quoting Do Thanh Lam, deputy director of the agency.

Lam said that about 600 million–700 million packs of cigarettes were smuggled into Vietnam each year, “causing losses of nearly $190 million to the state treasury.”

During the first four months of the year, the agency seized 400,000 packs of cigarettes and collected VND2 billion (US$100,000) in fines.

According to Lam, the main reason for an increase that has occurred in respect of cigarette smuggling has to do with the tastes of Vietnamese smokers, who preferred foreign products.