Some 550 million cigarette packs were smuggled into Vietnam, mainly via southern borders, last year, equaling around 15 percent of the country's total production, local newspaper Young People reported Monday.

Of the smuggled packs, 500 million were brands of Jet or Hero, the newspaper quoted the Vietnam Tobacco Association as reporting. The smuggling caused estimated losses of 91.8 million U.S. dollars to the state budget of Vietnam which has a population of over 83.1 million.

Local smokers annually spend 8,213 billion Vietnamese dong (513. 3 million dollars) on cigarettes, according to the country's Health Ministry. Statistics from the ministry show that over 50 percent of Vietnamese men and around 3 percent of women smoke cigarettes.

Source: Xinhua