Black market costs Britain $47 bn pounds

London, April 9 (IANS) Black marketeers selling cigarettes, liquor and diesel have cost Britain nearly 30 billion pounds (about $47 billion) in lost taxes, it has been revealed.

The colossal sum over the past five years, found buried in an annual report by HM Revenue and Customs, a non-ministerial department of the British government responsible for tax collection, is enough to have funded a one percent cut in income tax, the Sun reported.

The biggest loss comes from smuggled-in cigarettes and rolling tobacco. The dodged duty would have boosted the nation's exchequer by about 17 billion pounds (about $27 billion).