| dc.description.abstract | The illicit cigarette trade has begun to receive scholarly attention globally.
Empirical studies on the illicit cigarette trade are available in the context of
Indonesia. However, the Indonesian judicial system lacks a focus on treating
illegal practices. To fill the gap, we examine Indonesian court decisions
involving the illicit cigarette trade between 2010 and 2019. We provide an
overview of the enforcement of Indonesia’s Excise Law 2007 relating to
offences related to the illicit cigarette trade. By using a systematic
quantitative literature review, we collected data on Indonesian court
decisions and found the following: (1) convictions for the practice of illicit
trade in cigarettes were relatively steady, with a total number from one to six
court decisions annually; (2) certain offences from Indonesia Excise Law
2007 have not been found in the convictions, suggesting their
underutilisation in terms of monitoring and enforcement effort; (3) the
primary motivation of illicit cigarette traders as reported through the judicial
system is the economic benefit or “profit” available to the enterprise; and (4)
the sentencing decisions are dominated by the application of the “cumulative
principle” with fines and imprisonment applied at the same time. The finding
on the average length of imprisonment for illicit cigarettes, which was
around 18 months, shows that this crime has low risk compared with the
punishment for illicit trade in drugs and narcotics in Indonesia. | en_US |
