RESEARCH RESULTS

Recent research by Ipsos published in March this year, which was commissioned and funded by British American Tobacco South Africa, contained the following information on the illicit cigarette sector:

• 80% of cigarettes sold in the Free State were bought at prices that show no tax was paid;

• In Gauteng, the figure was 70%, and 71% in the Western Cape;

• In these three provinces combined, the sale of cigarettes at prices below the Minimum Collectible Tax Rate (MCT) increased from 69% of cigarettes sold in 2019 to 73%.