SA taxpayers may have to pay the price of cigarette ban - UCT Prof Corné van Waalbeek

Professor Corné van Walbeek, director of the research unit of the economics of excisable products at the University of Cape Town, has done extensive research on how the ban of cigarettes has affected South Africa. The good news is 16% of smokers have quit, but the bad news is while the sale of cigarettes continues undeterred for the remaining smokers, supplied mostly by illicit networks, the excise duties may go unpaid. Prof Van Walbeek emphasises that the cost to society in terms of the loss of revenue for the state and specifically also the entrenchment of these illicit networks, is a real problem that SA - and quite possibly the taxpayer - may be paying for very many years to come. - Vanessa Marks