Hanoi (VNA) - Tobacco smugglingis increasing in the southwestern border region to meet high demand for the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

Many smugglers can be seen transporting largeamounts of cigarettes by motorbikes along border routes in the Mekong Deltaprovinces of An Giang and Dong Thap and Can Tho city. Smugglers are mainly jobless residents living onthe border who know the area well and understand the countryside.

Despite difficult terrain and the efforts theauthorities, smugglers still find ways to transport the merchandise to storageareas before taking them to the market for sale. Some routes taken are on tiny paths on the edgesof rice fields, measuring just half a metre wide.

Nguyen Van Trung, acting director of Dong Thapprovince’s Market Watch Department, said although cigarette smuggling in theprovince is lower than last year, methods have become more sophisticated.

Cigarettes will be collected along the borderareas and will be transported deeper into the country for consumption. Thecigarettes will be transported by motorbikes or on foot to different storageunits and then delivered to places to be sold on trains, boats, trucks orcoaches, according to Trung.

Smugglers often have round-the-clock guards andoperate late at night or early in the morning, making it difficult to catchthem. The cigarettes are also divided into small packages for easier transport.

Deputy head of the provincial Border GuardCommand’s Drug and Criminal Prevention and Control Office, Phan Duc Phung, saidsmugglers seem to operate to their full capacity when the Tet is coming.

The unit has plans in place to deal withsmuggling, focusing on increasing inspections and patrols as well as educatinglocal residents to not get involved.

However, old equipment, limited financial andhuman resources together with difficult terrain, particularly during floods,hinder efforts, he said.

According to experts, in the southern region,the amount of cigarettes smuggled into HCM City from the southwestern borderaccount for up to 60-70 percent, mainly from Long An and Tay Ninh provinces.

Authorised forces in HCM City have increasedinspections in terms of both human resources and frequency and coordinated withrelevant authorities of these localities to handle the situation, but cigarettesmuggling is still a major issue in the city.

Smuggling cigarettes has been a problem for a long time, causinglosses to the State budget and posing high health risks because of the poorquality of the tobacco.

Thousands of billions of VND are lost each yearto the State in tax and import duties, according to figures released by the VietnamTobacco Association.

Nguyen Khanh Quang, deputy director of the Customs GeneralDepartment’s Anti-smuggling Division, said cooperation between authorisedforces along border areas and authorities of inland areas such as borderguards, police, customs officials and market watch forces plays an importantrole in beating the smugglers.

Loose cooperation would lead to the lack of information andineffective prevention and control, he said, adding that it is also crucial to cooperate with relevant authorities inCambodia to reduce smuggling of cigarettes across the border.

Head of the Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance Tran HuuLinh said working together would strengthen their cause.

It requires close coordination between authorised forces and italso needs clear management and direction to increase efficiency in the fight, Linh said.

Raising awareness and creating jobs for residents in border areaswere also essential to prevent them from joining smuggling gangs, he added.-VNA