By Pat Roxborough, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE REVENUE Protection Division (RPD) wants to strike a deal with several hoteliers and shopkeepers who are making billions of dollars from the illegal sale of American cigarettes.
The deal, to be brokered through the Ministry of Tourism, is the RPD's last conciliatory attempt to convince the businessmen to stop breaking the law which requires all packets to specify the tar and nicotine content in the cigarettes.
"The meeting was set up with the Ministry last week, but I am not waiting much longer before I crack the whip because they are defrauding taxpayers, breaking the law, putting another local manufacturing industry and jobs at risk," the RPD's head, Mike Surridge, said yesterday.
Several businessmen have been breaking the law for months by importing cigarette brands like Marlboro and Kool from smugglers. These brands are made in the United States, but they cannot be sold there legally because the packets do not inform the consumer of the level of tar and nicotine they contain.
The importance of knowing how much and what type of tar and nicotine is contained in cigarettes comes against the background of a controversy over their addictive nature.
Some merchants, like the one who sold a reporter a pack of 20 Marlboro cigarettes for $150, keep them hidden and produce them only on request.
Others, who sell them openly, said they are not aware they are illegal.
"I don't understand. I don't own the place, I only work here," was the comment from several merchants who spoke with The Gleaner yesterday.
To add insult to injury, Mr. Surridge said, the businessmen have been submitting claims to the Government for rebates on General Consumption Tax (GCT) they claim to have paid to the smugglers.
However, instead of taking them to court, where convictions under various sections of the law would guarantee punitive fines and alternative prison sentences, Mr. Surridge has been trying other methods out of concern for implications a major crackdown would have on the tourist industry.
"The tourist industry is very important and if these are the cigarettes that the tourists want, the retailers will have to arrange with the manufacturers to ensure the packages comply with our laws. I am trying to persuade the business people to act responsibly and I hope that good sense will prevail, but I will not be waiting much longer," he said.
