Tax Stamps: A Technical Study and Market Report - July 2007
Published by: Reconnaissance International

Tax Stamps: A Technical Study and Market Report is the first survey to examine and analyse the global tax stamp market for alcohol and tobacco. It provides invaluable (and, to date, unavailable,) insight into how governments can develop effective tax revenue collection regimes through the use of tax stamps, and how suppliers of components, products and systems can both drive forward the market for tax stamps, and benefit from the growing opportunities these provide. Read more...

The Global Trade in Smuggled Cigarettes - June 2009
Publishedy by: Tobacco Underground (part of the Center for Public Integrity)

In this series of reports, investigators in 14 countries go inside the booming contraband tobacco trade. From Chinese counterfeiters to renegade factories in Russia, Pakistan and on US Indian reservations, the cigarette black market robs governments of an annual $50 billion in taxes and fuels terrorism and organized crime. The articles were first published on the Center for Public Integrity Website between October 19, 2008, and June 28, 2009. Read the full report

How Eliminating the Global Illicit Cigarette Trade Would Increase Revenue and Save Lives - July 2009
Published by: International Union Against Lung Disease

This report claims that previous estimates of the scale of the illicit trade have been considerably underestimated. In 2000 a report commissioned by the World Bank stated that  6-8.5% of global consumption was smuggled. This latest report, which is based on data up to and including 2007, puts this figure at 11.6%, equivalent to nearly 660 billion cigarettes, which is losing governments $40.5 billion in unpaid revenues.  The losses, it says, are falling disproportionately in low and middle-income countries - 9.8% in wealthy countries compared with 16.8% in poorer. The report also claims that eradicating the trade would result in an immediate gain to governments of $31 billion and, from 2030 onwards, save upwards of 160,000 lives a year. Read the full report

Almost 15 years since they were first used, holograms are still an extremely relevant and important authentication device for government tax stamps – indeed the market for tax stamp holograms is the second largest after banknotes according to a recent industry report*. Here, Philip Hudson, chairman of the International Hologram Manufacturers Association explains further. Read the full white paper