From m black market cigarette shops to websites selling cheap tobacco: How Australian smokers are getting around paying huge taxes for their smokes

Australian smokers are getting around the world’s highest taxes on cigarettes by buying black market ‘chop chop’ or visiting a website offering heavy discounts.

From September 1, tobacco excise will climb by another 12.5 per cent, taking the price of a 30-pack of Winfield cigarettes from $35.20 to $39.60.

Even as the Federal Government cracks down on black market sales, with a new Illicit Tobacco Taskforce, smokers are defiantly finding a way to avoid paying hefty taxes that are making Australian cigarettes more than twice as expensive as a smoke in the United States.

They are doing this through buying illegal ‘chop chop’ loose leaf tobacco on the black market or by visiting Ciggies World online.

This Swiss-registered website administered in Sydney is offering Australian customers a reprieve from the world’s highest retail prices for tobacco, charging 70 per cent less than service stations and supermarkets.

A packet of Marlboro Gold cigarettes sell for about $30 in Australia, but on the Ciggies World website a pack of 20 can be bought for just $4, the price cigarettes sold for in Australia back in the early 1990s.

Although the prices are comparatively cheaper, smokers face waiting more than a month before receiving their goods – with a risk they may be forced to pay unexpected taxes for a product linked to lung cancer and a range of fatal illnesses.

Australians pay more than twice as much for a packet of cigarettes than smokers do in New York, even after the Mayor Bill de Blasio raised the price of smokes from $10.50 to $13, the equivalent of $AU17.80.

An equivalent  30-pack of tobacco will soon be selling for close to $40.

Since July, importers have been required to pay all duty and tax liabilities on tobacco as it entered Australia, instead of when he was sold locally.

Illicit tobacco costs the government $600 million in foregone revenue every year, the Australian Taxation Office and the Department of Home Affairs estimate.

Treasurer Scott Morrison announced in May that smokers would be slugged even more for a pack of cigarettes on September 1 this year, in the second of four consecutive 12.5 per cent tobacco excise hikes.

The tax hike is expected to result in a price increase of about $3 for a typical packet.

Last year, the price of 30 Winfield Blues jumped $2.70 from $32.50 to $35.20.

Despite the price hikes, Australia recorded a mere 0.2 per cent drop in smokers in three years.

Australia came in at number seven, with Iceland topping the list with a 12 per cent drop, followed by Norway at seven per cent.

The news comes after Australia was announced as the third most expensive country in the world to buy alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.

The average retail price for products including beers, wine, spirits, ecstasy, cannabis, cocaine and heroin is the most costly in Japan with New Zealand and Australia following closely behind.

The average sale cost of the ‘package’ is $1,028.7 in Australia, compared to the $100 in tropical countries including South Africa and Colombia.

While laws play a part in the price of narcotics, Japan is the most expensive place in the world to purchase from with an average cost of $1,366.4 followed by New Zealand at $1,241.6.