- Hon Casey Costello
Tougher penalties and new offences agreed by Cabinet will help tackle the illicit tobacco trade, Associate Minister of Health Costello says.
"Cheap illegal cigarettes are connected to organised crime; they hit legitimate businesses and tax revenue - and they undermine our efforts to stop people smoking," Ms Costello says.
"The current regulatory regime stretches across various agencies and doesn't recognise the seriousness of the issue or provide enforcement agencies the tools required.
"Cabinet has now approved two sets of legislative changes that will support Health New Zealand, the Ministry of Health, Customs and Police to better address black-market tobacco.
"Unlawful packaging of tobacco is a clear indicator that tobacco has been illicitly imported," Ms Costello says.
New offences and penalties relating to breaches of packaging regulations include:
- a new infringement offence of a $2,000 fine for a breach of packaging regulations
- a strict liability offence for a breach of packaging regulations of up to $200,000 for manufacturers, importers and distributors
- increasing the maximum penalty for the existing knowledge-based offence for a breach of packaging regulations from $50,000 to $100,000
- aligning the offence structure and maximum penalties for the sale of small quantities of tobacco with those for packaging
- strengthening the consequences for the approval of a specialist vape retailer that breaches regulations.
Changes to fines and offences will require amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 before they come into effect.
The Customs and Excise (Border Security) Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament last week also contains a significant related change with maximum prison term for tobacco smuggling and excise evasion increasing from six months to seven years.
"The annual increase in the tobacco excise has been a useful tool to discourage smoking, as well as providing important government revenue. Australia's experience with a huge slump in excise collection connected to illicit tobacco shows that we need to stop this black market as soon as we can," Ms Costello says.
"Taken together, these changes will strengthen the Government's cross-agency response by making it easier to identify, disrupt and penalise illicit activity."
