PALESTINE: The amount of tobacco being smuggled from Jordan into Palestine is “much bigger” than the amount being stopped by PA customs, according to a Palestinian official.
“Women mostly are the ones who are carrying out the smuggling,” Mohammed Rabih, an assistant to the director of Palestinian Customs, told media.
“Big quantities of smuggled cigarettes are being seized every day, but larger quantities are being smuggled in ways beyond our control,” he added.
A twenty-pack of cigarettes produced in Palestine costs roughly around $5.50 and while legally imported tobacco such as Marlboro, Ken and L&M comes at a similar price, cigarettes made in Jordan can be bought for $2.50 and sold for $4 on the Palestinian black market.
Dealers typically pay Israeli taxis to deliver tobacco to a drop-off point, as the Palestinian Authority has no jurisprudence over Israeli vehicles in the West Bank, according to media.
With the PA expected to run a $2 billion deficit this year, taxing cigarettes is an increasingly important source of revenue. Louay Hanash, director general of Palestinian Customs, told Al-Monitar that cigarettes raise $51 million a year.
However, one report released by Alpha International last year found that smuggling accounted for $105 million in lost revenues.
The range of different methods mean smuggling is increasingly difficult to stop. According to one Palestinian Customs official, “wrapping cigarettes against one’s body […] is done by women mostly, other smugglers wrap them in such a way to make them look like foodstuffs or place them inside clothes or bags.”
“The quantities that are smuggled are much bigger than those we manage to confiscate,” he added.
The Palestinian-run Jerusalem Cigarette Company meanwhile says the extent of smuggling and home-made “Al Arabi” tobacco is so significant its sales have fallen by 80% in two years.
