HANOI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will auction smuggled foreign cigarettes for domestic sales or export on a trial basis, instead of destroying them as currently.
Enterprises which involve producing, distributing or exporting cigarettes will be allowed to auction smuggled cigarettes, Vietnam's Finance Ministry said on Friday.
Auctioned cigarettes can be sold in the Vietnamese market or outside, but not to countries which share land borders with Vietnam, according to a new regulation drafted by the ministry.
Nearly 1 billion smuggled cigarette packets are consumed in Vietnam each year, causing losses of some 450 million dollars to its state budget, and resulting in losses of 1 million jobs for farmers and workers in the domestic tobacco industry, said the Vietnam Tobacco Association.
According to the global adult tobacco survey in Vietnam conducted by relevant Vietnamese and foreign agencies, including the Health Ministry, the country has 15.6 million smokers aged more than 15, with 85.3 percent smoking daily, who annually spend some 31,000 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) on their habit, the Vietnam Office of HealthBridge Foundation of Canada told Xinhua recently.
