Imperial Tobacco has come under fire from MPs over its failure to cooperate with a customs crackdown on cigarette smuggling.

The Commons public accounts committee says today that the company must co-operate more fully with Customs and Excise to help reduce the "enormous losses" in revenue caused by illicit tobacco imports.

Customs officials estimated that smuggling from the two main Imperial brands cost taxpayers some £1.4 billion in 2001/02, with nearly eight billion Imperial cigarettes smuggled into the UK each year.

The company said it had now addressed concerns and was giving Customs and Excise "all the information they require".