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Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Frederick Ma, in the Legislative Council today (June 13):
Question:
Regarding efforts to combat the sale of duty-not-paid cigarettes (commonly known as "illicit cigarettes"), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the quantity of illicit cigarettes seized by the authorities in the past two years, the means through which the cigarettes were seized and the relevant details, together with a breakdown of the quantities of illicit cigarettes seized in various public housing estates by the names of the estates;
(b) whether it has discovered any cases in which illicit cigarettes were found being stored in public housing units or private premises; if so, of the public and private housing estates involved; and
(c) whether it has assessed the effectiveness of current measures in combating such crimes, and of the new measures in place to step up the efforts to crack down on the sale of illicit cigarettes?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Over the past two years (from May 2005 to April 2007), the Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) has seized more than 20 million sticks of dutiable cigarette at the retail level, of which some 5.7 million were seized in premises of public housing estates (please refer to Annex 1 for details).
There are mainly three ways leading to C&ED's seizures of illicit cigarettes: (a) intelligence gathered through various channels; (b) regular inspections on black spots of illicit cigarette activities; and (c) public complaints.
(b) Over the past two years (from May 2005 to April 2007), C&ED has detected the storage of illicit cigarettes in flats of public housing estates and private premises. The public and private housing estates involved are listed at Annex 2.
(c) C&ED's efforts in combating the sale of illicit cigarettes have been very effective. The once common open selling of illicit cigarettes in public areas has basically been eliminated. Such activities have now been reduced to furtive peddling to known customers. Moreover, C&ED would refer those public housing flats found used for storing illicit cigarettes to the Housing Department for follow-up action, and some of these flats have been taken back by the Department. This measure has effectively deterred the storage of illicit cigarettes in public housing flats.
C&ED received 1,247 public complaints relating to the selling of illicit cigarettes in 2006, a decrease of 31.6% from the 1,823 complaints received in 2005. The 408 complaints received in the first five months this year also represent a decrease of 25.4% from the 547 complaints received in the same period last year. C&ED will continue to strengthen intelligence gathering and will adjust its strategy for combating the sale of illicit cigarettes from time to time in response to the modus operandi of this illegal trade.
Ends/Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Issued at HKT 14:45
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