Sri Lanka customs hands over three million smuggled cigarettes for destruction

BILKULONLINE
Colombo, Sep 2: Sri Lanka Customs has transferred approximately three million cigarettes confiscated during the first half of 2024 at Colombo Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) for destruction, state media reported on Monday.

The estimated street value of the cigarettes handed over to the Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) for destruction exceeds 75 million rupees (250,000 US dollars), said the report. If these cigarettes had reached the Sri Lankan market, the South Asian country would have lost roughly 480 million rupees (1.6 million US dollars) in duties and other levies, according to the report, Xinhua news agency reported.

The cigarettes were primarily smuggled by passengers arriving by air, said the report. CTC, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT), holds the monopoly of cigarette and tobacco sales in Sri Lanka, where cigarettes are subject to high taxation.