(MENAFN) Prohibited cigarette trade, having progressed at an outstanding 43.5pct rate through the past six years, accounts for nearly a quarter of the gross trade of the product, according to the latest reports.
As a result, an annual loss of USD226 million to the national exchequer is experienced, hence this trend has pushed Pakistan to a not-so-coveted 4th position in Asia in terms of the share of illicit trade.
Basically, 23.7pct of the total cigarettes' trade in Pakistan was illegitimate and avoids the tax net, thus local tax-evaded (LTE) cigarettes account for 17.3bn cigarettes, and this comes out to be 89pct of the gross illegal cigarette trade.
Furthermore, the rest of the trade stems from smuggling, hence recent data exposes that 2 billion cigarettes are smuggled into Pakistan on an annual basis, mostly from neighboring Afghanistan.
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