Cork tip: High taxes encourage illegal trade

The illegal trade in cigarettes is rife in County Cork, Ireland, according to a UTV (Ulster Television) story.

During the past two weeks, 595,000 illicit cigarettes have been found in Cork, which figure represents about one cigarette for every resident of the county.

In the most recent incident, the third haul in two weeks, a joint operation by Revenue and the Gardaí uncovered 20,000 unstamped Aroma cigarettes and 15 kg of unstamped Flandria tobacco.

The find, made in the village of Glanmire on Saturday was said to have been worth €15,500 at retail, ‘with a potential loss to the Exchequer of around €12,000’.

The 77 percent tax rate implied by these figures probably goes some way to explaining the high incidence of illicit cigarette sales.