LISBON: The Portuguese state lost around €100 million in tax revenue on tobacco in 2016, a year in which the authorities seized 198 million cigarettes, according to the Fiscal Action Unit (UAF) of the Republican National Guard (GNR).
The commander of the UAF, Colonel Magalhães Pereira told daily newspaper Diário de Notícias the “value of the fraud was obtained by calculating the seizures of illegal merchandise and what was found through investigations to have been introduced into the consumer market.”
Magalhães Pereira told the newspaper that the cost of making a packet of unbranded cigarettes in an illegal factory was around €0.50 to €0.60.
