Arnott on Tobacco Smuggling

Deborah Arnott makes a huge unfounded assertion.

It is a myth that high duties on tobacco lead to increased smuggling

There are effective controls to police contraband; the priority should be public health

To be fair, that is the sub editor putting a neat cap on the whole article. The gist, though, is that tobacco duty should rise in order to force people to cut down or give up. That is ASH’s raison d’être after all.

Scandalised by the behaviour of the tobacco industry, government put in place a tough anti-smuggling strategy, including fines of up to £5m for manufacturers who fail to control overseas sales. Following legal action, the major international manufacturers have all signed legally binding agreements to control smuggling and pay millions of euros to the EU and member states. The payments aren’t called compensation, but it’s clear the industry is being forced to pay for its past misbehaviour.

The thing is, you don’t need to break the law or indulge in smuggling to avoid paying UK duty. Mrs L likes roll-ups. She has not paid UK duty, perfectly legally, for a decade or more. All that she does is stock up each time that we cross the channel. So Arnott’s assertions are wrong. Each time that the duty rises, more people will decide to do the fag and booze run to Calais –  it’s another example of the Laffer curve in action. So, of course smuggling will increase –  and not all of it will be illegal, which makes it all the more delicious. Each rise in duty makes the white van run a little more cost effective. And, frankly, given that Arnott’s sinister organisation steals its funds from the taxpayer, the less we pay to the exchequer for them to squander on such fake charities, the better.