Sri Lanka, March 4 -- The government would have incurred a loss of Rs.1.8 billion in taxes in the past three years if not for the efforts by Sri Lanka Customs that seized 8.7 million sticks of illegal cigarettes that were smuggled into the country, an official said.

A massive stock of cigarettes from a variety of foreign brands that had been seized in 2018, 2022 and 2024 was destroyed by the Customs at Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) compound in Kotahena this morning under the purview of Customs Chief Sarath Nonis and CTC higher management.

Last year alone the Customs had managed to earn a sum of Rs.141 billion as production tax to the government from cigarette manufacturing, Customs Spokesperson Additional Director General Seevali Arukgo...