APPENDIX 16
Letter from HM Customs and Excise to the
Clerk of the Committee
This note clarifies some of the detail behind
the figures given for the market penetration of alcohol and tobacco
smuggling in the second indent of Mr Martin's letter of 13 July
1999[5].
The figures shown are for cross-Channel smuggling
and smuggling by air passengers only, and were published in a
Technical Report laid by HM Customs and Excise in the House of
Commons library in November 1998. Cross-Channel smuggling of alcohol
and tobacco is a close analogy to the smuggling of hydrocarbon
oils in Northern Ireland, which is essentially a cross-border
issue. The figures exclude any amounts for smuggling of very large
consignments in freight or diversion-type frauds, which we do
not believe to be major factors in Northern Ireland oils duty
evasion. They are the only estimates that Customs has for alcohol
and tobacco duties evasion.
However, for completeness, you may also wish
to note that Customs published a provisional assessment of the
overall scale of cigarette smuggling in their reply of 17 May
1999 to a parliamentary question from Jackie Lawrence MP. Based
on work still in progress, this assessment was that the market
share taken by cigarette smuggling overall (including freight
smuggling) was approaching 10 per cent. Customs have no equivalent
assessment for alcoholic drinks.
19 July 1999
5 Appendix 15, p 97. Back
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