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Judge Lifts Tax Collection Ban For Cigarettes Sold On Indian Reservations

BUFFALO, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A judge has lifted a temporary order preventing New York state from following through with plans to tax cigarettes sold on Indian reservations to non-Indian customers.

Supreme Court Justice Donna Siwek rejected a challenge by the Seneca Indian Nation to the regulations adopted by the Tax Department to govern the collections. She lifted the temporary order that had been in place pending the decision Wednesday.

Seneca President Robert Odawi Porter says the western New York tribe will appeal.

The state plans to impose the $4.35-per-pack tax on Native American sales without going onto reservations by requiring cigarette wholesalers to pay the sales taxes before they supply reservation stores. Wholesalers would pass along the levy to tribal retailers, who would have to raise their prices.

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