Extra $1.50 tax on
cigarettes urged
16
February 2006
By
ANNA CHALMERS
Smokers will have to suck in a $1.50 price rise
after the next Budget if anti-tobacco campaigners
get their way.
Ash
and the Smoke free Coalition presented a submission
to Parliament's finance and expenditure committee
yesterday calling for "substantial" tax increases on
tobacco, especially on cheap cigarettes.
Ash
director Becky Freeman said there had been no tax
increase for six years and it was becoming "cheaper"
for the country's smokers – 24 per cent of the adult
population. Ash has called for a minimum price rise
of $1.50 on tailor made cigarettes.
The
Social Development Ministry last year asked the
Government to consider increasing tax on alcohol and
tobacco in a bid to improve public health.
Ms
Freeman said previous tax rises, the latest in 2000,
had resulted in reduced cigarette sales.
Ash
cited overseas studies in its submission, which
showed 10 per cent tax increase results in a 4 per
cent drop in smoking by adults and a drop of up to
15 per cent by young people.
The
watchdogs also want tax increases on roll-your-own
cigarettes, to stop consumers switching after price
rises on tailor made cigarettes, as has happened in
the past.
Tobacco taxes should be increased annually to at
least match inflation, Ms Freeman said.
"There's no magic bullet, but it's the single most
important thing you could do," she told the
committee.
Smoke free Coalition director Mark Peck, a former
Labor MP, urged the committee to recommend the tax
rises to the Government.
"Smoking rates now are as high as they were prior to
the tobacco taxes going on. Over time, because there
hasn't been an increase in taxation, it's become
cheaper for families."
British American Tobacco spokesman Carrick Graham
said the industry was already heavily taxed. The
tobacco firm paid $750 million tax a year.
Further tax increases would encourage the burgeoning
black market. "It's beating an old drum which isn't
going to give them the results they want. They need
to be aware of the growing influence of black market
tobacco. It is a very serious issue |
