The Australian government has stepped up its efforts to crackdown on tobacco smugglers as Attorney-General Nicola Roxon announced on Thursday proposals to amend the country's Customs Act before the end of 2012.

The legislative revisions, Ms Roxon said, would soon hand down harsher punishment on individuals or companies found involved on bringing in tobacco products inside the country without proper documentations and paying the appropriate tax duties.

Technically, Ms Roxon said, the federal government proposes the creation of a new provision within existing laws, which would label "smuggling tobacco or conveying or possessing smuggled tobacco," as a federal offence.

Such black market activities when proven by authorities would merit maximum imprisonment of 10 years and attached penalties, the Attorney-General said.

"These new penalties will send a clear message to smugglers that they risk spending significant time in jail by bringing illegal tobacco into the country," Ms Roxon was reported by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying on Thursday.

Her announcement was made as Australia commemorates World No Tobacco Day, underscoring the country's spirited campaign against smoking that will be further punctuated this year as Canberra officially implements its cigarette plain packing laws in December.

By that time, tobacco products being sold in the country can only be marketed in drab packets and minus their brand names, on their stead would be graphic warnings that advise the public on the adverse health effects of cigarette smoking.

The new laws was approved by the Parliament in 2011 but giant tobacco manufacturers led by the British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) have filed legal challenges against the measures, which the Australian High Court is expected to resolve October this year.

Australia's anti-smoking policy also spawned a trade dispute currently lodged before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) but the Gillard government has vowed to defend it stance on the matter.

Cigarettes firms have argued too that Australia's unfriendly policies toward tobacco products could lead to widespread smuggling of foreign and counterfeit brands into the country.

In 2011 alone, federal authorities have reported that 82 million illegal tobacco products have been confiscated though Ms Roxon noted that the numbers represent but a mere fraction of the total number of cigarette sticks that Australians purchased within the same period.

Some 20 billion cigarettes were consumed by Australian smokers as of 2011, the government said, which may have delivered billions of revenues to the federal coffers but those gains, the Health Ministry said, were offset by more billions of dollars spent by the national government in dealing with health conditions attributed to cigarette smoking.

Australia aims to significantly reduce cigarette smoking incidence in the country over the next few years following this year's implementations of the plain packaging law, the Health Ministry said, but its efforts were somehow met by tobacco companies' recent tactics of introducing cheaper cigarette brands.

BATA has earlier issued a brand that retails only for as low as $12 each pack, which the government scored as a ploy that is mostly geared on luring young smokers in the country to adopt or continue on the risky habit.