The country is overgrown with smuggled cigarettes

According to hvg.hu,  it’s worth risking for the cigarette smugglers to get caught  as they could make a couple million forints in one night. It is no surprise that the police have taken in one and a half times more smuggled cigarettes than in 2013; and the tendency is increasing.

More than one and a half times more smuggled cigarettes had been taken away by National Tax and Customs Administration than last year, in 2013 – said the Magyar Nemzet.

It’s worth risking for the criminals, as according to the newspaper, they can gain 6-7million forints in one night.

It is all reflected to the hvg.hu’s last summer’s article where after a year of tobacconist division, it had made an overview that in the rural cities and in Budapest, too, the cigarette smuggling is thriving; even the owner of the book shop had his hand dirty.

According to the National Tax and Customs Administration, last year’s excise duties showed that more than 7, 9 billion cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos had been sold in Hungary which is below the previous year’s average.

The statistics also showed that the decreasing of the cigarette sale wasn’t for the quitting of smoking but for the consumer’s attitude: they buy tobacco rather than a box of cigarette. (Supposedly, from the 570 tons of tobacco they had made 5, 7 billion cigarettes, if we count as one cigarette contains 1 gram of tobacco. With this amount, the total 13, 6 billion cigarettes only below last year’s sales with 1, 4 billion cigarettes.)

The paper had known from the police that between 2011 and 2013, every year they had taken away 60-70 million cigarettes in different procedures; last year they had taken away 100 million cigarettes and in the same time they had withdrawn from the black market 26 tons of tobacco which were only 4.5 tons the previous years.

based on article of hvg.hu
translated by Andrea Toth

Source: www.hvg.hu