Thailand cigarette sales offering (from 2010).
Thailand’s Excise Department in mid-June presented a parliamentary committee tasked with drafting the 2022 budget bill with the finding that up to 30% of all cigarettes now sold in the country are illegal, constituting mostly smuggled contraband.
At the same time, sales of legal products fell continually on the background of ongoing public sector anti-smoking campaigns and tobacco tax increases. Excise tax on tobacco is an important part of government budget funding, contributed around THB2.2 billion ($70.5 mn) to state coffers in 2020, or about 11% of all excise taxes collected by the department that year.
The excise department also said that declining cigarette sales undercut the livelihoods of local tobacco farmers, as several rounds of tobacco tax increases over the past decade led many consumers to resort to illegal products. Illicit cigarettes are widely available in Thai cities and towns from informal sellers, who often operate right under the noses of local police.
The department reportedly recommended to the budget committee a review of the current tax structure for cigarettes in order to counteract smuggling. Oddly, several local cigarette brands such as Krong Thip and Falling Rain, traditionally the mainstay of low-income earners, now retailing at higher prices than many of the imported international brands.