Combating trade in illicit cigarettes

Illicit cigarettes are not just harmful to the economy but often also to smokers who consume them with low quality dangerous substances.

A large number of illicit cigarettes are consumed in South Africa every year. That means we lose in excise revenue every year. That sort of revenue would build quite a few more schools, roads and houses which we need.

What actions are we taking?

• We’re increasing supervision of cigarettes exported via warehouses.
• We’re improving the manual tracking of cigarettes in transit through South Africa.
• We’re working with Tobacco industry experts to develop a way of detecting illicit cigarettes.
• We’re improving authentication marking on cigarettes.
• We’re doing more retail inspections.
• And we’re going to tell the public how to identify illicit cigarettes.

If you would like to report non-compliance click here.

So help us to combat tax crime in South Africa.

When they’re not paying their taxes it's South Africa that suffers.