TAXPAYERS may have lost almost $900 million in revenue in 1993-94 because of rampant cigarette smuggling.
Mr Jenney said that in the first six months of the 1993-94 financial year, $14 million worth of smuggled cigarettes were seized - almost double the same period in 1990-91.
Meanwhile, the number of cigarettes on which duty was paid dropped by 48 per cent from 6.9 billion to 3.6 billion in 1993-94.
If the tobacco industry's claim that cigarette smuggling cut its revenue by about 30 per cent every year was true, he said the Government would have lost $893 million in tobacco duties.
Mr Jenney said there were many cases of smuggling in which cigarettes declared to be exported to China were re-packed as general cargo and shipped back to Hong Kong in small boats.
From July to mid-October last year, almost two million cigarettes smuggled into Hong Kong in this manner were seized by the Customs and Excise Department, representing 53 per cent of all cigarettes seized during the period.
