Stricter penalties will be imposed if people are found to have more tobacco products than allowed when entering the country.
Revenue says the new rules will come into effect on 9 December.
Manager of Revenue's Dublin Airport Frontier Management Branch Michael Gilligan has said that the personal allowance is being abused.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said people travelling from another EU country are entitled to bring in 800 cigarettes, 400 cigarillos, 200 cigars and a kilo of tobacco.
"If somebody brings in more than those amounts, then the total amount of tobacco products that they're carrying will be seized," he said.
He said that the arrangements have only changed in so far as clarity around the consequences of exceeding the amounts.
"The amounts themselves haven't changed. They are the same as they were last month, last year and the year before.
"So, all we're doing is tightening up on an abuse of a personal use relief that we have identified.
"And I suppose it's important to note that the illicit tobacco market is supplied through a range of channels, smuggling, manufacturer, distribution, online sales, but duty, personal relief is also being abused."
He said to put that into context, in Dublin Airport, they make over 300 tobacco seizures every month.
"That's over ten a day. And in fact, we find that it's not just individuals that are travelling singly.
"The vast majority of the 30 million people who come through Dublin Airport every year are very compliant with all the rules and regulations.
"But in the last eight weeks we have had two instances where we've had a number of people who have been related in some way to organised crime, and they've come through Dublin Airport, and they were attempting to bring over a third of a million cigarettes in their suitcases.
"So, this is not Revenue targeting any individual. This is Revenue targeting an abuse of a relief that's in place."
Mr Gilligan said that in one instance there were 12 suitcases between several passengers that were related, that were coming in, and there were nearly a third of a million cigarettes in that.
"So, sometimes the focus when we use the term personal use relief is on an individual.
"We're targeting an abuse of that relief where we see upwards of 30 seizures a month or ten seizures every day of tobacco products here in Dublin Airport."
He said that prosecutions will follow "in all of those very serious, egregious cases".
He added that Revenue will not be prosecuting people who are just over the allowance.
"But I want to emphasise that if you're over the allowance, all your tobacco products in your possession will be seized."
He said that there is adequate staff at Dublin Airport to make the checks required.
"What we do is we, here in the airport, we have a look at the various risks that we have to contend with between the various types of technologies that we have available to us, including x-ray machines, detector dogs, other technologies and the staff themselves.
"We believe we have the resources to be able to deal with this," he said.
