Here discount cigarettes

Customs officials are cracking down on a new breed of website which claims to offer imported cigarettes and tobacco at cheap prices.

The websites offer consumers the chance to buy the products at cheaper duty rates than in the UK and the fear is that they may extend to alcohol and cause problems for the pub trade.
One internet site, Cheap Cigarettes UK, claims: Legally import cigarettes and tobacco from Spain into the UK all the top brands available.

The sites are cropping up following th Chancellor,s duty rise on beer and cigarettes last month. But Customs and Excise has warned consumers that UK duty must be paid on any goods posted from Europe. If there is any doubt, goods will be seized at postal depots.
However, new proposals being debated by the EU could open the floodgates for UK consumers to buy alcohol and tobacco over the internet at the lowest duty rates in Europe.
If new distance selling regulations are approved, it would mean that duty on goods bought over the internet within the EU would be paid at the rate in the country where they are sold.
Mark Hastings, spokesperson for the British Beer & Pub Association, said the rules would allow a UK consumer to order cases of beer from countries such as Spain, where beer duty is around a tenth that of the UK.
He said: This undermines the government's entire stance on maintaining higher duty levels.
UK customs officials have been acting to shut down websites which sell cheap cigarettes from EU states to British consumers.

A spokesman said: Customs is well aware of these sites and we are vigorously pursuing action against them. Our officers at postal depots are actively targeting importations of cigarettes.
Regulations say that duty and VAT must be paid on all items bought over the internet and imported into the UK. In the mid-1990s the Enlightened Tobacco Company lost a test case in the European Court after it set up a mail order business importing cigarettes from Luxembourg.
The long court battle ended with a ruling that consumers can only avoid paying UK duty if they physically import goods themselves.

WASHINGTON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said on Wednesday he was considering the possibility of raising the federal cigarette tax to $2 a pack -- from the current 39 cents -- as recommended by an advisory committee.
Last week, the HHS' Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health approved a plan for the steep increase in the tax. Half the money raised would be allocated for initiatives to help people stop smoking.
Anti-tobacco campaigners immediately welcomed the decision and pressured the government to accept.
"We urge the administration and Congress to act quickly and aggressively to implement this plan," William Carr, executive vice president at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement.
"If they do so, it would represent an unprecedented national commitment to address the leading preventable cause of death and disease in our country. The committee estimates its plan would prevent three million premature deaths and help five million smokers to quit."
Health experts say smoking is the biggest single cause of preventable death, killing 400,000 people every year from heart disease and cancer.
Thompson said Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who chaired the committee, was coming up with a recommendation for him.
"I haven't made a decision on the tax but I like the concept of a fund," Thompson told reporters. "I think the general premise of setting up some sort of fund to give dollars back to people who want to quit smoking is good."
Thompson said 70 percent of smokers wanted to quit but could not get the support, including drugs, to do so.
He said he raised cigarette taxes while governor of Wisconsin, but added the issue of a tax was problematic politically.

Several studies have shown that raising the price of cigarettes can deter smokers, especially teen-agers.
In 1998, states reached a settlement with tobacco companies in which they received $246 billion over 25 years to pay for the costs of smoking-related illnesses.
Anti-smoking campaigners say states have recently been raiding those and other tobacco-prevention funds to cover budget deficits.
On Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty suggested eliminating the state's youth tobacco prevention fund, using the cash to cover the state's budget deficit.