Caribbean governments are losing millions of dollars in tax revenue as result of the illicit trade in cigarettes.

That revelation came at a recent seminar, jointly hosted by the Barbados Customs & Excise Department and the Trinidad-based Carisma Marketing Services, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT).

Felicio Ferraz, Carisma’s Chairman and Country Manager, said there could be significant decreases in the collection of tax earnings because of the illegal activity.

“Illicitly traded cigarettes can account for as much as 25 percent reduction in revenues collected from Excise in any given year,” he said.

In addition to pointing to the revenue losses, Barbados’ acting Comptroller of Customs Frank Holder said there have also been considerable disruptions in the trading patterns of legitimate manufacturers because of the large-scale smuggling of contraband and counterfeit cigarettes entering regional markets.

“Cigarette smuggling appears to have been developed by organised crime groups as a global criminal business and generate huge profits for those involved,” he said.

“Here in Barbados we have had our challenges with large suitcases of cigarettes being imported. Such importations, if not detected at our borders, are a significant loss of revenue to our government.”

The training of the region’s customs officers is being undertaken to help them to better differentiate between authentic and counterfeit cigarettes.

The two-day seminar was attended by 39 participants from a number of Caribbean countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis, Grenada, Belize, Bonaire and Curacao.