Big Tobacco fumes over new EU salvo in cigarette smuggling war

Brussels

A EUROPEAN Union plan to crack down on cigarette smuggling has manufacturers such as British American Tobacco Plc (BAT) up in arms about red tape, signalling that the bloc's promise of more business-friendly regulation has clear limits when it comes to smoking.

The EU intends to track cigarette packages from the factory floor to the retail shelf using electronic codes, the latest weapon in a fight to stamp out illicit sales that deprive governments of more than 10 billion euros (S$16 billion) a year in tax revenue.

The European Commission wants to let EU countries deviate from the current industry standard in Europe for serial codes on products, saying that any extra costs for companies would be negligible. The discrepancy threatens to create technical hassles for cigaret…