Fixed cigarette prices 'benefitting smugglers and tobacco companies'
Local shops want to be able to set the price of tobacco products sold in their stores, rather than allowing the Government to determine the price.
The Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA) said today that the policy of raising the price of tobacco is unwittingly playing into the hands of smugglers.
The CSNA's annual general meeting was told today that 400 local shops went out of business in the last two years and many more are under severe pressure.
Chief executive Vincent Jennings said that they want a change in the law to allow retailers set the price of tobacco products.
"It's literally the only product in our stores that we don't have the right to say what we sell it for," he said.
"This is to do with the convoluted and arcane rules of revenue and excises.
"But we feel that the tobacco companies are the beneficiaries of this, and it's certainly not in our advantage."
