New Powers To Tackle Illicit Tobacco Market

With more than 27 million illicit cigarettes and 7,500kg of hand-rolling tobacco seized in the first two years of Operation CeCe, new powers have been announced to help tackle the illicit tobacco market and reduce tobacco duty fraud.

Under the new powers, businesses and individuals who sell illicit tobacco products will now face penalties of up to £10,000.

The new powers will also see Local Authority Trading Standards given the ability to refer cases to HMRC for further investigation. HMRC, where appropriate, will administer the penalties and ensure the appropriate sanction is applied and enforced.

Nis Bandara, Deputy Director for Excise and Environmental Taxes, HMRC, said: "Trade in illicit tobacco costs the Exchequer more than £2 billion in lost tax revenue each year. It also damages legitimate businesses, undermines public health and facilitates the supply of tobacco to young people.

"These sanctions build on HMRC's enforcement of illicit tobacco controls, will strengthen our response against those involved in street level distribution, and act as a deterrent to anyone thinking that they can make a quick and easy sale and undercut their competition."

Kate Pike, Lead Officer for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, added: "Trading Standards Officers across the country work with colleagues in Public Health to reduce the harm from smoking and with enforcement partners to disrupt criminality in our communities.

"We welcome this addition to our toolkit of measures to tackle illegal tobacco, ensuring that those who seek to profit from supplying these products face substantial penalties for doing so, and their ability to continue to trade is severely impacted."

HMRC has also announced that it will launch a new illicit tobacco strategy later in the year to replace 'From Leaf to Light', which has been the guiding strategy for tackling the illicit tobacco market since 2015.

Operation CeCe is a joint HMRC-National Trading Standards operation which has been working to seize illicit tobacco since January 2021.