200% PRICE HIKE FOR CIGARETTES

MBABANE – This could be the right time to ditch smoking as it is becoming an expensive habit.

Amid the shortage of cigarettes that hit the country about two months ago, the black market has inflated the price by 200 per cent. This inflation mainly applies to bulk buyers, who have been having it hard stocking up for their businesses. Under normal circumstances, businesses would buy a volume of cigarettes for about E350 but now, it is being sold for close to E950.

Loose

This has led to loose cigarettes that were sold for about E3 each to be now sold at E6 maximum and this is attributed to the drastic shortage that hit the country since the closure of borders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade Communications Officer Thabile Mdluli said the sale and regulation of alcohol and cigarettes in the country was not under their portfolio in this COVID-19 era. She had been asked if there were any measures in place to curb inflation of prices for commodity in the country.
Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said they condemned the existence of cigarettes as the Ministry of Health.

“We cannot really condone the existence of cigarettes by regulating its prices as we do not encourage people to smoke. Actually, we would be happy if cigarettes would not be sold in the country,” said Dr Magagula.  He said the ministry would not intervene in the new pricing of the tobacco products. “The sad part is that with the cigarettes now being sold in the black market, it means we cannot benefit from sin tax like we used to,” he said.

Drastic

Business owners confirmed that their shops were experiencing a drastic shortage of cigarettes. Manager art Good Price store in the capital city, Shumon Bhai, said the shop had not been able to stock on cigarettes for a while now. Good Price is a bulk-selling retail outlet where small shops stock up from. “Our supplier said they could not import cigarettes for the past two weeks. Cigarettes are becoming a scarce commodity. When we sought clarity on the matter, they said it was because manufacturing factories were closed in South Africa,” said Bhai.

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