The amount raised for the treasury by tobacco sales has again fallen below official forecasts, the Financieele Dagblad said on Thursday.

Tobacco industry figures show that consumers are increasingly buying their cigarettes and rolling tobacco in Belgium and Germany where they are cheaper, the paper said.

Last year, the finance ministry had estimated tobacco taxes would bring in an extra €80m after prices went up on January 1. However, the amount raised by the treasury remained around €2.44bn. This is still below the €2.5bn raised in 2012, the paper said.

Tobacco taxes are due to go up again this April. That rise should raise an extra €100m for the treasury, according to finance ministry figures.

The industry says turnover in the sector has fallen by almost 25% over the past five years but this does not reflect the number of people stopping smoking.