Cigarettes inventory is low across the state of Illinois, and one organization said that it comes from a combination of clients supplies and the state holding back on cigarettes stamps ahead of a new tax hike. Customers are stocking up on tobacco products, purchasing extra packages and cartons before the price raised. “It’s a man that usually buys one carton,” William Fleischli, Vice President of the Illinois Association of Convenience stores told the State Journal-Register. “Now he wishes to purchase two or three cartons, trying to save in this way $18 or even $20.”
Fleischli argued that the state of Illinois is holding back on the tobacco sale of tax stamps, which are required to trade cigs at retailer.
“They’re also restricting the sale of a product in expectation of a product going up in price,” he added. “They’re going to gain because the price increased.”
The Department of Revenue spokesman Greg Rivara debated that claim and said stamp availability was raised by 25 per cent.
The state department is not permitting shops to buy more than their average number of stamps for this time of year, but the 25 per cent increase was proposed for the seasonal rise in smoking tobacco and the influx of those trying to detour the tobacco tax increase, the State Journal-Register reported.