Illicit cigarette market surges nearly 20% to 1.16 bn sticks in 2024

Illicit cigarettes continued to erode the tobacco monopoly of Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC, with a significant 19.6 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) growth and soaring to 1.16 billion sticks in 2024.

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This surge resulted in an estimated loss of Rs. 118 billion to state coffers during the year.

In 2024, the total market for combustible tobacco, comprising legal cigarettes, illicit products, and beedi, contracted to 9.7 billion sticks from 9.9 billion sticks in 2023. However, this contraction entirely impacted legal cigarettes, whose market share fell to 20 percent in 2024 from 24 percent the previous year.

Conversely, the beedi market share rose to 67 percent in the year, with sales increasing to 5.6 billion sticks from 6.4 billion sticks a year prior.