Tax Justice SA (TJSA) warned that criminal prosecutors are in pursuit to put an end to tobacco tax cheaters.
“The illicit cigarette trade is now robbing the nation and its people of R19 billion a year,” says TJSA founder, Yusuf Abramjee.
The previous lockdown bans have massively enriched organised kingpins as they are “living in luxury”. Abramjeesays, “Although SARS has finally started to make moves against these industrial-scale looters, we now need to see arrest and the masterminds in court before they dodge just forever.”
Ipsos, market researchers, have found that shops all over South Africa are filled with illicit tobacco and tax-evading cigarettes on sale. Investigations at TJSA have revealed that brands from some licensed manufacturers are still leading this illegal price war.
SARS has announced its launch against tax cheats in the tobacco industry, “which included search-and-seizure operations at the homes of [the] suspects”.
“The R19 billion stolen by these criminal manufacturers could pay the full repair bill for the KwaZulu-Natal floods, plus relief grants for half a million victims for a year.” Abramjeeadds, “That money belongs to the South African people and should be collected by the State on their behalf.”
TJSA is working to raise awareness of this national threat and inform how these stolen funds could have been used to build a better nation.
