Research On Problems And Countermeasures For Governance Of Counterfeit Cigarettes In Guangzhou

Since the establishment of exclusive right to sell tobacco in China, the production and sales of tobacco is much more in order. Benefits of such regime include the significant improvement of the quality of tobacco products, the increasing efficiency of the tobacco industry, the remarkable increase of national taxes on tobacco and the effective assurance of the interests of the State and its people. Over the past 30 years, the tobacco industry has accumulated a huge amount of fortune for the government and provided powerful support for the development of national economy. The tobacco industry plays an undoubtedly important role in developing the national economy. However, crimes in relation to the production, transportation and sales of counterfeit tobacco are continuingly committed for obtaining illegal interest, which has a great impact on order of the tobacco industry, impeding the government’s tax benefits and consumers’ interests. In the recent years, all levels of the Guangzhou government and other functional authorities in charge of tobacco, public securities, transportation, commerce and industry in Guangzhou spent lots of energy and resources in managing the counterfeit tobacco issue.However, despite of the seriousness and variety of the management measures, the effectiveness of such measures are not ideal and Guangzhou remains one of the cities which need more powerful management measures against counterfeit tobacco. This thesis, by means of literature researching, interviews and case studies, first introduces the current status of management of counterfeit tobacco, clarifies the relevant managing authorities and their interrelationship in managing counterfeit tobacco, analyzes the problems existing in the management of counterfeit tobacco and reasons for such problems and provides solutions and suggestions for enhancing the management of counterfeit tobacco.Based on the research and analysis of the practice of managing counterfeit tobacco, this thesis found the main problems and relevant reasons for the management of counterfeit tobacco include the following:(1) Source of information about counterfeit tobacco is limited. Because the locations for manufacturing counterfeit tobacco tends to be more and more furtive, the transportation means are more and more sneaky, and the ways of sales are more and more flexible, the governmental authorities find it more and more difficult to find out efficient clues for tackling the problems. Meanwhile, people are not aware of ways or unwilling to report counterfeit tobacco to relevant governmental authorities, which also makes the source of information about counterfeit tobacco limited.(2) The law enforcing authority at the frontline is not powerful enough. As the main power for managing counterfeit tobacco, the authority in charge of the tobacco industry is generally lack of authority with unreasonable functionalstructures and employees with uneven professional skills and old fashion equipment for enforcing laws. All these factors lead to a weak law enforcing team in the tobacco industry.Meanwhile, the local governments, which should be responsible for the prevention and control of counterfeit tobacco, are generally lack of the ability to address this problem.(3) The cooperation between different governmental authorities to manage the problem of counterfeit tobacco is not smooth. There is barely no effective cooperation and no uniform goal among the authorities in charge of the tobacco industry, public securities and commerce and industry with respect to tackle the problem of counterfeit tobacco. Such cooperation is either not working well or just a matter of formality. In addition, the mechanism for such cooperation is not always updated in a timely manner and the regulations and rules issued by different authorities may contradict with each other.With respect to the problems and reasons stated above, this thesis proposes some solutions to better deal with the management of counterfeit tobacco on the basis of the network management theory, including:(1) Improve the information network of management of counterfeit tobacco. Build up a complete, timely and efficient information sharing network by setting up a reporting platform, innovating the ways of public promotion and education,activating people’s willingness to participate and enhancing the detective ability of the law enforcing team.(2) Enhance the ability of the law enforcing team. To further enhance the law enforcing ability, the government needs to be separated from corporate management, the organizational structure needs to be perfected and the quality of law enforcers need to be improved. Enhance the role of local government in integrating different law enforcing teams and establish an effective baseline for preventing and controlling counterfeit tobacco.(3)Strengthen the cooperation between different authorities. Uniform the goal of managing counterfeit tobacco among authorities in charge of the tobacco industry, public securities,transportation, commerce and industry and further investigate and punish the activities of transporting and selling counterfeit tobacco. Further improve the cooperation mechanism among different authorities with the government taking the lead. Deepen the cooperation between the authorities in charge of the tobacco industry and public security.This thesis may shed light on the market supervision and management via cooperation among different authorities for the local governments, and has both theoretical meaning and practical meaning.