Electronic cigarettes than traditional tobacco illegal governance more difficult

The regulatory authorities have continued to crack down on illegal manufacturing and sales in the industry, but despite this there are still continuous violations, e-cigarette counterfeiting and counterfeiting is easier and more difficult to combat than the traditional tobacco industry.

In October this year, the Honggu Branch of the Lanzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau successfully dismantled a major cross-provincial sales gang of counterfeit cigarettes, arresting 11 suspects and seizing more than 300 counterfeit cigarettes in accordance with the law, involving an amount of more than 10 million yuan.

A search of relevant news shows that there are many similar cases around the country, in addition to counterfeiting and selling counterfeit cigarettes, there are also various acts such as smuggling cigarettes. The tobacco industry is of great interest, with consumption just in demand and a relatively high unit price, and is the main source of taxation in China, with an annual tax revenue of over a trillion yuan.

Tobacco regulators have only just begun to manage the e-cigarette market, the first two years of inspection of the e-cigarette market is mainly focused on stores, the main content is to check whether the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, store location is too close to educational institutions. Now the main content of the inspection for stores is whether the stores are selling illegal e-cigarettes. However, now legal stores are no longer the mainstay of e-cigarette sales.

Now illegal e-cigarettes are rampant, there is a huge black market, illegal products are also updated and cheaper disposable e-cigarettes appear.

The reporter's hometown is located in the township of tobacco, rich in tobacco, raw materials, there are counterfeiters in situ, long-term production of fake cigarettes, although repeatedly investigated and punished, but still resurface.

Government control of cigarette production and distribution, from tobacco planting has begun, at the time of planting signed a contract with the tobacco company counterpart sales, tobacco farmers can only sell tobacco in the township, can not be sold across the region, the government will set up barriers at key intersections, tobacco sales will be taxed, is the main source of government finance in the township, the government has an incentive to protect tax sources.

Tobacco sales to foreign countries follow strict controls to prevent the loss of tobacco, including the production of nicotine from tobacco leaves, which also requires a license.

The same is true for the cigarette production process. Modern cigarette factories are so efficient in production that most of them can complete their annual demand in just a few months, and the factories do not have the power to produce more cigarettes; how much is produced is controlled by the government. In addition the machines used to produce cigarettes need to be approved before they can be bought to prevent the flow into the black market and the use of these machines to produce counterfeit cigarettes.

In the sales chain, tobacco control is equally strict, there is a license to sell counterfeit cigarettes illegal, no license to sell real cigarettes, there is a license to sell real cigarettes outside the scope of the license are illegal, the quota management is refined to the store.

Electronic cigarettes have three links subject to control, nicotine, tobacco oil and electronic cigarette products (factory and brand) category, the need to obtain a license, capacity and production quota also have requirements. Compared with the full process of key aspects of the control of cigarettes, e-cigarettes management is relatively more relaxed, the production of e-cigarettes required batteries, atomization equipment and other key aspects are not in the scope of monopoly control.

At present, there are many practitioners with electronic cigarette production technology, and there are many devices, and the technological content of electronic cigarettes is not high. After the monopoly, the regular manufacturers capacity is limited, and some enterprises did not obtain a production license, these idle capacity is likely to be converted into electronic cigarette black industry practitioners, they are familiar with the production, but also familiar with the market, the production and sale of electronic cigarettes is much less difficult than traditional cigarettes.

Consumers do not like counterfeit cigarettes because of the crude production, the taste of fake cigarettes can not be compared with real cigarettes, but in the case of restricting the taste and innovation of e-cigarettes, consumers will actively choose illegal e-cigarettes. In addition, because the national standard e-cigarettes include taxes, the price is higher, consumers will also choose illegal e-cigarettes for cheap, which all give a relatively large space for the black market of electronic cigarettes.

In addition, from the tax source, electronic cigarettes to the national tax contribution is still relatively small, even according to last year's sales volume, the national electronic cigarette excise tax scale is less than 10 billion yuan, compared with traditional tobacco is minimal, the regulatory authorities to protect the formal manufacturers, the incentive to protect the tax source is still weak.