Total Consumption was estimated at 728 million cigarettes in 2017, broadly stable in comparison with 2016.​

Legal Domestic Sales declined by 22.3% to 227 million cigarettes in 2017. In total legal sales have halved in volume since 2014.​

This follows the implementation of a tobacco tax bill in July 2015, which trebled the Excise Tax rate on cigarettes. At the same time, the passenger duty-free personal import allowance was cut from 100 cigarettes per person to 19 cigarettes.​

Over the same period, Illicit Incidence has risen by more than 20 percentage points to 55.7% in 2017.​

The majority of illicit cigarettes consumed in 2017 were identified as intended for final retail sale in China.​

The Tax Loss associated with Illicit Consumption in 2017 amounted to MOP 608 million (USD 75.8 million).​