19 million illegal cigarettes sold daily
Roughly 19m illegal cigarettes are sold daily in SA, costing the legitimate tobacco industry R7bn in lost sales a year.
|||Durban - About 19 million illegal cigarettes are sold in South Africa daily costing the legitimate tobacco industry about R7 billion in lost cigarettes sales a year.
The illegal trade, in turn, is losing the government about R4bn a year in unpaid duties and tax.
These shocking figures came to light at the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday in an application by the National Director of Public Prosecutions for the forfeiture of R166 650 in cash by Stanger businessman, Dawood Masra.
The application was made on the basis that the money was the proceeds of criminal activities, being the sale of illegal cigarettes.
Masra opposed the application, claiming the criminal charges against him had been withdrawn, and that he had sold cigarettes which were legally acquired.
In court papers, it was revealed that on February 20, 2012, police Captain Manivasagren Perumal received information about a silver Corsa bakkie carrying illegal cigarettes.
Perumal proceeded to Superb Cash and Carry in Stanger where he met Elijah Wiggill, who is an anti-smuggling investigator with Sars customs.
Perumal and Wiggill approached the bakkie, being driven by Masra.
On searching it, Wiggill found a variety of cigarettes.
He questioned Masra about whether he had invoices for the cigarettes. Masra could only provide invoices for the Voyager cigarettes.
On scrutinising the invoices, Wiggill noted that Masra had purchased the cigarettes for R130 a carton of 200 cigarettes from Gwaai Marketing.
According to Wiggill, who is a qualified tobacco and cigarette specialist, the amount paid was below the normal price paid, and that excise duties and VAT were due on the cigarettes to SARS.
Masra could not provide invoices for the other brand of cigarettes in his possession, namely Kingdom cigarettes, manufactured in Zimbabwe, and Kuber tobacco, manufactured in India.
As a result of this, Wiggill and Perumal decided to search Masra’s house.
When entering Masra’s driveway, Perumal saw an unknown man handing a plastic packet to the neighbour. The man was later identified as Sadik Lahir, Masra’s nephew.
The packet was retrieved and was found to contain 511 stacks of R100 notes, two stacks R200 notes and one stack of mixed notes (R50, R100 and R200 notes) amounting to R166 650.
Questioned about the source of the money, Masra said it was from the sale of cigarettes.
In a judgment on Wednesday, Judge Fikile Mokgohloa ordered that the money be forfeited to the state.
The judge found that even though criminal charges had been withdrawn against Masra, civil proceedings target the asset base of criminal enterprises, regardless of the criminal proceedings.
“The withdrawal of criminal charges against Masra is not relevant as a civil forfeiture is not criminal-based,” she said.
Judge Mokgohloa said if Masra was able to provide invoices for certain cigarettes which he acquired legally, in the same vein he should also have produced the invoices for the Kingdom cigarettes and Kuber tobacco, especially as these were manufactured outside of South Africa.
“The inference to be drawn then is that these cigarettes were illegally acquired, and Masra tendered no evidence to prove otherwise,” the judge said.
Daily News
* Use IOL's Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.