Clause 1 - Rates of tobacco products duty
Finance Bill
9:15 am
Mr John Healey (Economic Secretary, HM Treasury; Wentworth, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman may know that we have set a public service agreement target for 2006 for Customs to bring down further the illicit share of the market to 17 per cent. Compared with three years ago, when we were faced with a steeply escalating market share for illicit tobacco, Customs has succeeded in halting the rise, stabilising the level and now driving down the size of the illicit market. He may be interested to know that during the three years that the anti-smuggling strategy has been in place, Customs has seized 7.3 billion illicit cigarettes destined for the UK market, disrupted 190 tobacco smuggling gangs, and protected an estimated £3 billion of revenue for the public purse and the taxpayer.