smokers.

One disgruntled consumer blamed retailers for a recent $4 hike slapped on cigarette cartons in some shops.

In a letter to the Finance Minister he claimed cigarette suppliers were making a "100 percent profit on the tax''.

But retailers this week protested they make a negligible profit on cigarettes.

Price increases are handed down by the wholesalers, they say.

Manager of Clarendon Pharmacy Mr. Nigel Price said for many retailers cigarettes are hardly worth carrying because profits are a matter of pennies.

"Nobody is making a profit on cigarettes,'' he said. "It is such a competitive market and with the increases someone is always disgruntled.'' Cigarettes could one day be taken off the shelves altogether if sales continued to drop, he warned, adding there had been a marked decline over the past 14 years.

Mr. Laurion McGehee, vice-president of the Phoenix Drugstore said stores are simply passing on wholesale price increases.

Because cigarette prices go up so infrequently, he said, wholesalers add increased overhead costs which have accumulated over a period of time on to increases in duty.

Cigarette wholesalers president Mr. Edgar Wilkinson of Tobacco Associates said a recent mark-up on cigarettes was the first in three years.

"It was a business decision that had to be made,'' he said. "Over the last couple of years the only increase has been in duty. In the meantime our overheads have risen, with the payroll tax among other things. We wait until there is an appreciable sum and then we pass it on that way.'' Duty increases, he said, were always directly passed on to the consumer.