Tax rise would boost illicit cigarette sales

Forty-seven per cent of the respondents in a survey said they would turn to illicit cigarettes if the government raised tobacco tax again this year. The survey was conducted last month by smokers' rights groups I Smoke Alliance and Momentum 107. Of the 382 people interviewed, 68 per cent were smokers. The two groups also said the number of illicit-cigarette raids rose to 5,878 in 2009, from 1,577 in the previous year, after the tobacco tax was raised 50 per cent.