Doubling the price of rollies?!? Mod Warning added to Post#1 re illegal tobaccos.

Rothmans

My friend just linked me this on fb
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0426/tax-tobacco-smoking.html

So help me God, if they even try to do this, it'll push me over the edge. We're already paying extortionate taxes on tobacco - €9.60 for a pouch of Old Holborne!

No sir, I won't stand for it. They can only push us around so much. Sure, smoking is an inelastic product, but they government ought to know, and hopefully they have realised by now, that they no longer have a monopoly on tobacco. Due to the current high taxes, they have fueled the sales of tobacco on the black market (25-35% of cigarettes coming from the black market). If they do what is proposed, they'll ultimately lose Revenue, due to more and more people availing of 'tax free' tobacco, which is widely available and easily accessible.
They can't expect smokers to continually give them Revenue if they treat us like this. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

The study, funded by the European Commission, says it is a policy that could boost revenues for the Government, while also saving lives.
The report also calls for the tax rate on roll-your-own tobacco to be increased to match manufactured cigarettes, because the recession has led many smokers to switch to the cheaper product.
The co-ordinator of the consortium that ran the study, Professor Luke Clancy, said EU governments should "double the minimum monetary tax level on cigarettes".
He said they should then increase it each year above the cost of living rate.
Professor Clancy, who is also the Director General of the Tobacco Free Research Institute, said roll-your-own tobacco is "much cheaper than cigarettes and this has to be changed".
Asked how much a packet of cigarettes should increase by in December's Budget, Professor Clancy suggested €1.
However, he added that a meeting of international health economists and tobacco control experts, which met in Brussels today to discuss the report, had been told that New Zealand plans to increase the price of a packet of cigarettes to €41.
Asked how Government revenues could be boosted, when an increase in tax would likely result in lower consumption, Professor Clancy said the higher price paid by those who continued to smoke would more than cover the funding gap.
Professor Clancy said that the Health Minister's proposals to ban smoking in public parks and beaches were good because they would "de-normalise" smoking.
However, he said "empirical research" proved that price matters when it comes to members of the public ending their smoking habit.

Mod Note: Discussion of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco is inevitable in this thread. However anyone asking for or offering sources for illegal tobacco products WILL have posts deleted and may be banned.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

PseudoFamous

And then the government can turn people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically, into tonnage worth a price per pound

OldGoat

PseudoFamous wrote: »

And then the government can turn people into animals, then meat, and from meat, logically, into tonnage worth a price per pound

Please keep to the topic. The above is just nonsense.

BeerNut

Clancy's been coming out with stuff like this for years. I would suggest that the amount of sway he holds on Merrion Street is minimal. The Department of Finance knows a lot more about balancing the public good, price thresholds and the black market than he does.

The report is an EU-wide one and cigarettes are very cheap in lots of EU countries, so I'd say they are the nutty professor's target more than here.

mongdesade

"However, he added that a meeting of international health economists and tobacco control experts, which met in Brussels today to discuss the report, had been told that New Zealand plans to increase the price of a packet of cigarettes to €41"

You've got to be ****ting me, that's outrageous :mad: :eek:

BeerNut

BeerNut wrote: »

Clancy's been coming out with stuff like this for years. I would suggest that the amount of sway he holds on Merrion Street is minimal. The Department of Finance knows a lot more about balancing the public good, price thresholds and the black market than he does.

The report is an EU-wide one and cigarettes are very cheap in lots of EU countries, so I'd say they are the nutty professor's target more than here.

Hasn't the revenue from cigarettes fallen a bit over the last few years while the numbers smoking held steady?

Quick Google about NZ pours a lot of cold water on the reports.