Auctioning illicit tobacco

Vietnam is to pilot a scheme that will auction tobacco products seized while being smuggled into the country, according to a Vietnam Net story citing a new order given by the Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc.

The Vietnam Net story said that only good quality products would be auctioned for later sale in Vietnam or re-export.

Fake or substandard products would be destroyed.

The pilot program will be run for a year by the ministries of finance and industry and trade.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the fight against illicit tobacco imports has seen significant results since the government started financing the destruction of the seized products.

Statistics provided by the ministry showed that the number of seized cigarette packs fell from 1,055 million in 2012 to 990 million in 2014 (about 20 percent of the total cigarette consumption in Vietnam) and to 700 million in 2015.

Tobacco smuggling is common in the southern border provinces of Dong Thap, Kien Giang, Long An and Tay Ninh.

Vo Thien Ngo, vice director of the Long An Market Management Branch, said the transportation, storage and trading of smuggled cigarettes in the province of Long An continued unabated.

Smugglers were using motorcycles, motorboats and high-speed cars to transport large shipments of smuggled tobacco products, he said.