Last year, the 32 departments of the country and the Capital District stopped receiving more than 750,000 million pesos for cigarette tax, destined for health, recreation and sports.
That’s what the study says Incidence of illegal cigarette consumption in Colombia 2021carried out by the firm Invamer for the National Federation of Departments (FND) and whose results have just been presented.
According to that study, in the last four years Colombia stopped collecting 2.4 billion pesos for the same reason, which represented a huge gap in departmental finances.
In the last four years, Colombia stopped collecting 2.4 billion pesos for this same concept.
The report indicates that despite the fact that the illegal consumption of cigarettes in Colombia fell by one percentage point, going from 34%, in 2020, to 33%, in 2021, the losses were greater. While in 2020 the regions stopped receiving 692,000 million pesos from cigarette tax, last year that figure increased to 750,000 million pesos.
“The number that was not received increased, although illegal consumption decreased, because the market grew,” says the Executive Director of the FND, Didier Tavera Amado. However, according to Tavera, due to the percentage point that consumption in the country decreased, “territorial entities have more than 59,000 million saved, which is equivalent to investing in the admission to school of 55,000 minors on average.”
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According to the report, which was conducted among people aged 18 to 64 from all socioeconomic strata, on average, each smoker consumes 7 illegal cigarettes a day in urban areas; in rural areas this consumption rises to 8 illegal cigarettes per day.
For this reason, according to the study, in the countryside the consumption of illegal cigarettes reaches 52% while in urban areas it is 27%.
On average, each smoker consumes 7 illegal cigarettes per day in urban areas; in rural areas this consumption rises to 8 illegal cigarettes per day.
In terms of stratum and age range, the main consumer of illegal cigarettes is between 55 and 64 years old, and belongs mostly to strata 1 and 2. In these strata, the per capita consumption of illegal cigarettes per week is 53 cigarettes, while strata 4, 5 and 6 reach 48 cigarettes.
The people who consume the most are those over 55 years of age, 60 cigarettes a week; while those between 18 and 24 consume almost 40 per week.
For Tavera, the good news that the study reveals is that the upward trend that had been marking the illegal market has been stopped: “Since 2016, the percentage of illegal cigarettes has been rising consistently: it went from 13 percent, in 2016, to 34 percent in 2020, and for 2021 that rise is stopped and it is possible to reduce even one point: 33 percent”.
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“The results of the study are encouraging, since they demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategies implemented at the national level, which have been segmented to meet the needs and characteristics of each of the regions,” he adds.
The Tax and Customs Police, Medellín Division, in coordination with the DIAN) and Revenues of Antioquia have carried out several anti-smuggling operations in the Aburrá Valley metropolitan area.
The results of the study show that among the departments in which the consumption of illegal cigarettes was reduced is Antioquia, which in 2020 was at the top.
The results of the study show that among the departments in which the consumption of illegal cigarettes was reduced is Antioquia, which in 2020 was at the top.
Antioquia went from 47 percent in consumption to 34 percent, a considerable decrease of 13 percent, which the FND and the Dian attribute to the so-called Antioquia Plan, which began in the middle of last year to combat the sale and consumption of cigarettes. smuggled.
Martín Orozco, general director of Invamer, assures that when the national 33 percent is disaggregated among the departments, the case of Antioquia stands out because it weighs a lot within the industry: it represents 5.4 percent. “It is a department where many cigarettes are consumed and therefore the improvements achieved there are reflected in the national figure,” he maintains.
The study showed that the departments with the highest rate of illegal cigarette consumption are La Guajira (94%), Cesar (85%), Magdalena (84%), Sucre (70%), Norte de Santander (68%), Bolívar ( 62%), Córdoba (58%), Atlántico (47%), Santander (35%), Tolima (35%), Chocó (34%), Guaviare (34%) and Antioquia (34%).
For their part, the regions that increased the most in the consumption of illegal cigarettes compared to 2020 were Bolívar (15%), Cesar (11%), Chocó (10%) and Risaralda (10%).
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The study also found that the illegal cigarette market tends to use more informal and high-traffic channels, such as neighborhood stores. In Colombia there are about 600,000 neighborhood stores.
According to the Invamer study, 82 percent of people who consume contraband cigarettes say they buy them in stores.
More than 6 million packs were seized in 2021
According to the DIAN, the main illegal cigarette brands available in Colombia are Rumba, from Uruguay; Carnival, from South Korea; Ultima, from India, and Marshal and Marble, from China.
In 2021, according to that entity, more than 6 million cigarette packs, 112 thousand bottles of liquor (750ml), and 709 thousand beers (350ml) were seized. This merchandise is commercially valued at more than 24 billion pesos. In 2022, more than 16,900 million pesos will be invested in the fight against smuggling.
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