Fag haul makes a packet for Customs

Thursday 09 October 2014

Customs spotchecks to see if Islanders are bringing in over the legal limit of cigarettes has netted almost £20,000 in three months - but they say that it's mostly Islanders pushing their luck, rather than organised commercial smuggling.

This summer two extra Customs officers were taken on to find out how many of us were exceeding our duty free limit – they stopped more than 4,000 people travelling into the Island and 7% of them were allowing themselves a bit more tobacco than they should.

The exercise cost just over £18,000 but the officers confiscated almost £20,000 worth of duty during the three month period – almost half was duty from the cigarettes that were seized and almost a quarter was from the duty from the hand rolling tobacco confiscated.

Director of Legal Status and Revenue Steven Le Marquand said: “The three-month exercise has confirmed our previous view that commercial tobacco smuggling is not a high risk in the Island and that the Treasury is not losing millions in revenue as a result. Nevertheless a small amount of passengers continue to purchase tobacco in excess of the duty free allowance and officers will continue to take the necessary actions against such individuals. The commitment and efforts of the officers working on this exercise is to be commended."

Customs officers have also been investigating a few cases of cigarettes and tobacco being advertised for sale on social media and they are warning Islanders that it’s an offence to sell on any duty free goods.

The Channel Island Tobacco Importers and Manufacturers’ Association’s spokesman James Filleul said: "The duty free limit needs to be applied in order to keep the right balance between consumer freedom, revenue for the Treasury and fairness for local retailers. Although commercial smuggling doesn’t yet appear to be a widespread issue in Jersey, frequent low-level abuse of the duty free law all builds up to very significant issue for the local market.”