Tobacco taxes up in smoke

[greengoose]

The Government is losing €1m a day in tobacco taxes since they increased the price of cigarettes in the Budget.
After the big hike in excise duty in October -- combined with the British drop in VAT and the weak sterling -- there was an immediate and significant fall-off in cigarette sales.
Much of the trade has gone North, but Revenue officials believe that one in five cigarettes smoked in the Republic are smuggled into the country.
During a recent spot check on two flights from [COLOR=#306294]Latvia[/COLOR], the 480 passengers each had an average of 1,000 cigarettes in their luggage. A pack of 20 costs about €1 in Latvia, compared with €8 here.
Cigarette sales in ireland fell 23 per cent in January and the annual loss to the Exchequer if the trend continues will be €324m for 2009

Directly from the Rag!

Relying on smokers fro revenue is surely a paradox. Savings are being made on pensioners' medical cards, special needs students, education, busses and now the smokers are buying elsewhere. Great country.

[Andrew49]

And the additional taxes levied on cigarettes in the October 'emergency' Budget were condemned by the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation .... for being to small !

The Heart Foundation said that as the national charity fighting heart disease and stroke, it was "extremely frustrated" by the Government's failure to increase the price of a pack of cigarettes by at least €1."An increase in tobacco tax was sorely needed in this budget and the Irish Heart Foundation feels badly let down by the Government's token increase of 50c on a packet of 20 cigarettes,"

The Irish Cancer Society said it, too, was disappointed by the tiny increase. It had sought a €2 increase on the pack of 20 to reduce tobacco consumption by 10pc and to stop young people starting to smoke. "Today's decision means that the Government is losing a critical opportunity to reduce smoking in the long term.....High taxes on tobacco are the single most effective intervention to prevent smoking. This is especially so for young people and those on low incomes."


Source

[euroboy]

So the tax on cigs has become too successful. Its reduced the number of cigs people smoke(provided they dont find them elsewhere).

ISnt that why they uped the taxes, to cut smoking as part of a overall health strategy.

[Wakeupcall]

Directly from the Rag!

Relying on smokers fro revenue is surely a paradox. Savings are being made on pensioners' medical cards, special needs students, education, busses and now the smokers are buying elsewhere. Great country.

Frippin right... When they go over there I hope they do a lot of other shopping as well...

Call me unpatriotic, but I call myself non idiotic, so there is no comeback!

Punishing people for failing to protect them in the first place, and hitting the poor the hardest. Its common path in IRE

[kerrynorth]

I have never been a smoker so I have no direct experience but according to my mam who is the fags are now cheaper in the UK (and the North of course) with the exchange rate shift on top of the additional taxation. For the last number of years fags in the UK were expensive compared to here, my mam would travel to the UK with packets of fags bought here, but now the opposite is the case.

[Odyessus]

So the tax on cigs has become too successful. Its reduced the number of cigs people smoke(provided they dont find them elsewhere).

ISnt that why they uped the taxes, to cut smoking as part of a overall health strategy.

No the increased tax on cigarettes has been spectacularly unsuccessful.


They raised the tax to increase revenue and reduce smoking. Smoking has not been reduced, but revenue has.

[jimmyfour]

Directly from the Rag!

Relying on smokers fro revenue is surely a paradox. Savings are being made on pensioners' medical cards, special needs students, education, busses and now the smokers are buying elsewhere. Great country.

You make it sound as if cigarette taxes actually went to medical cards, special needs, education, buses and health care. They don't. As with most taxes, they end up in the brown envelope melting pot and the money is divvied out to the good old boys.

There would be a direct comparison possible, if we could see how each euro of tax is spent. But that would require transparency and honesty and as such, we can't.

I quit smoking on January 1st, and have so far saved €369.76. I'd rather it was in my pocket but hopefully it will offset the levy I am about to be hit with.