From yesterday, the Macau Customs Service brought its duty free arrival tobacco allowance into line with that of Hong Kong by reducing the allowance per person from 100 cigarettes to just 19, or an alternative allowance of just one cigar or 25 grams of other tobacco material per person.

 

In a statement released today on the official Macao SAR website, the government said it was introducing this and other measures following the implementation of its new tobacco duty increase where this tax now accounts for more than 70% of the retail price.

 

This change follows the same volume reduction made to Hong Kong’s duty free arrivals allowances way back on August 1, 2010. At that time the Hong Kong SAR Government slashed its allowance entitlement for incoming travellers to Hong Kong from three packs to just 19 cigarettes.

 

This was linked at that time to Hong Kong’s public health programme, with the Lo Wu duty free railway station operation serving China (run by Sky Connection then and now) hit very badly as a result.

 

 

Until then it was generally acknowledged to be the single largest Marlboro retail outlet in the world, catering to millions of Hong Kong and mainland travellers passing through the international station every year.

 

Meanwhile, back in Macau, Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak told press yesterday that he was also turning his attention towards illicit smuggling of cigarettes into Macau and more measures are being put into place to try to reduce this, including more random inspections at border checkpoints.

 

He added that the Macao Customs Service will review its measures in a timely manner and will retain close contact with other related departments on the work of preventing illicit cigarettes.

 

[Click here for details as reported by TRBusiness at the time: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/asia-pacific/hong-kong-tobacco-allowance-to-drop/58413].