Javier Romera
9:07 – 12/08/2014
The tobacco industry is suspect. After receiving a report that Olaf, the European Anti-Fraud, certifies that there are more than enough snuff smuggling from Gibraltar signs and even money laundering, the Attorney General has already asked the chief prosecutor National, Javier Zaragoza Court, to open proceedings to clarify, among other things, whether there are companies involved in the fraud.
The reason is, beyond the report of Olaf, in that the tax leads and months researching the industry and the government has increasingly founded suspicions that there are companies that are selling at Gibraltar many more packs than they actually consumed in the Rock in order that these cigarettes then enter the Spanish market illegally without paying taxes and one therefore much lower price. Finance is putting the focus, especially in the so-called manufacturers licit whites , teach that are manufactured or imported in a completely legal but are designed after the smuggling.
Growth of illegal
Having grown 34% just in the last year and more than 50 brands in the market, illicit whites now account for more than half of the illegal traffic, while the remaining 45.7% corresponds to snuff smuggling of big brands and counterfeit product.
Suspicions focus primarily on firms like H. Van Landebyck a Luxembourg company which manufactures brands such as Elyxir, Austin or Ducal; Greek Karelia Tobacco, owner of American Legend and the Cyprus Explosal Ltd, owner of Rachel, among others, that could be sanctioned and even that would ban the sale in Spain.
The Big Four firms tobacco Philip Morris, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International (JTI) and British American Tobacco (BAT) – which have signed an agreement with Olaf laying undertake to combat smuggling charge a biannual report from the consultancy Ipsos periodically to assess how much is the illegal trade. The study was done with soil collected packs, separating those with the Spanish tax seal those that lead not incorporated. The study, which includes both snuff and smuggling as the one who made up packs but purchased legally in other countries, raises the percentage of the three major manufacturers of illicit whites to 36.1 % share. The data is very important because participation in the legal market is negligible.
In the study by Ipsos also included Philip Morris, the owner of Marlboro and Chesterfield, with a share of 26.1 percent and JTI The owners of Winston and Camel, with another 22.4 percent between packets without precinto- but in this case the situation is different. Keep in mind that these units are similar to those they have in the legal market and are thus the most bought by tourists. That regardless of whether Philip Morris has a very high share in Andalusia Chesterfield, which creates more demand for visitors to Gibraltar, and with Winston JTI in Catalonia, which facilitates the same way shopping in Andorra. The main entrance is, however, on the Rock. In fact, as the data handled by the Treasury, the Campo de Gibraltar concentrated in 2013 about 60 percent of measures of administrative arrest for violation of smuggling snuff Spain.
Grow entry snuff
The Tax Administration has also warned that since 2006 has observed a “significant increase” in Gibraltar snuff entry through the Customs Line Conception. Thus, if in 2009 the number of packets exported by this custom was 61.9 million was in the last three years has far exceeded the 110 million packets a “number that can not be consumed by approximately 29,000″ residents on the Rock, pointing from the department heads Cristobal Montoro.
These are the data that caused the Spanish government now asked for the intervention of Olaf, now giving the reason and urges the Government to open an investigation as well. “There is reason to believe that (in Gibraltar) have committed crimes of smuggling and money laundering snuff affecting financial or other interests of the European Union,” the letter said that the European Anti-Fraud has subsided.
The Spanish government yesterday was a little further and a statement of Finance accused the Executive of Gibraltar of harboring criminal gangs. “This smuggling is fully controlled by criminal organizations obtain significant funding and which are covered by the Gibraltar Government inaction he knows and allows for significant volumes of imports of snuff in a colony of just 29,000 inhabitants with no significant action is taken for control, “said the ministry.
snuff smuggling last year triggered a fraud in state coffers 718 million euros. The concern in Brussels in this respect is absolute, not least because in the whole European Union fraud smuggling of cigarettes rises to 10,000 million euros.
ADVERTISING
No comments:
Post a Comment