Tobacco and Duty

I'm a smoker, i enjoy smoking. I disagree with the arguments that the increased price will encourage people to stop smoking. It's just not going to happen.

Smoking is addictive, and it's not easy giving up just to save some money. This is why a lot of alcoholics and drug abusers end up homeless. The risk of them going homeless didn't get them to quit.

I remember though maybe about 13 / 14 years ago, you used to be able to get 50 ciggys for around £5.50, those same brand ciggys today, with the new increase, would cost around £7 for 20.

For people who work and receive minimum wage, there going to have to do pretty much 2 hours work just for a packet of ciggy's, which is a bit ridiculous.

In regards to the NHS, if i developed some sort of problem because of smoking, the amount of tax i've paid on cigerettes over the years would far surpass the cost of treatment for me.

At the end of the day, cigerettes are an addictive product, an easy way to make money, people NEED them to beat their craving, and they will buy them regardless of the price. The only thing all this extra tax is doing making people poorer, and increasing the amount of people who will buy duty free tobacco products.

i also agree that if i did decide to quit, the money i save on cigerettes would just be spent on other "luxury" items, maybe dvd's, blu-rays, games, pair of jeans, maybe even some microfibre cloths, no matter what it is, the money will be going back into the system via VAT (which also increased to 20%), then the companys who get my money, they will be using it to purchase things as well, in which they have to pay VAT on, aswell as paying a tax return each year for every penny they made.

They could have put an extra 50p on chocolate, more people eat chocolate, and it causes obesity, which again costs the NHS a lot of money to deal with.

bah, its all as mad as toast.
 
aproctor said:
If you want to avoid duty that much, it is much easier to spend £50 on a flight to Belguim and buy it for 1/3 of the price.

It can be done but the amount of space needed would be crazy, unlike other home grown substance that only needs an attic.
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oh guess the yeild from a tobaco plant is tiny then
 
stoofa said:
You know that a massive percentage of the "smuggled" stuff is actually fake and contains up to 50x the amount of toxins and harmful ingredients found in "legitimate" stuff?
That you'd be extremely hard pushed to tell the difference between the fake and the real stuff?
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I smoke mayfair ciggarettes, theyre actually produced 20 miles from where i live, labeled with european languages then exported, quite a lot of them end up being smuggled back into the uk.
 
Simples : easy target
As said people find it hard to give up, so tax something thats hard to give up and you will find a net increase in revenue. Tax something thats easy to give up and you stand a good chance of seeing hardly any or no increase in revenue.

What I have noticed though and they need to address TBH is the pouched tobacco is too cheap in comparison to cigarettes. So you see more young people doing rollys than smokinf packet ciggies now so your not even filtering it most of the time as if you watch them they hardly ever use the filters.

If I was in government I would simply increase the smoking age each year by one year. So people who can legally smoke today will always be able to, those who cant will never be able to, in 10 years it will be bloody obvious that a 16 year old is smoking illegally.

Its quie possible there would be a benefit from people not smoking, generally they will be fitter, so arguably more productive less likely to be ill etc. But, if everyone gave up today we have no future generation of smokers paying the increased NHS costs of the current generations increased risk of illness.
Its just like NI, the NI we pay now pays for TODAYS pensioners, the NI contributions were not invested they were spent. With Tobacco the increased risk of health problems in years to come will have to be funded then, not from todays taxation.
 
robskinner said:
Simples : easy target
What I have noticed though and they need to address TBH is the pouched tobacco is too cheap in comparison to cigarettes.
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It costs exactly the same by weight, people who roll use less.

robskinner said:
If I was in government I would simply increase the smoking age each year by one year. So people who can legally smoke today will always be able to, those who cant will never be able to, in 10 years it will be bloody obvious that a 16 year old is smoking illegally.
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You would just create a massive black market.
 
setter said:
I smoke mayfair ciggarettes, theyre actually produced 20 miles from where i live, labeled with european languages then exported, quite a lot of them end up being smuggled back into the uk.
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It was a big problem several years ago, UK brands were being exported to countries where the local population would have to smoke several hundred a day if it was for domestic use.
 
aproctor said:
It was a big problem several years ago, UK brands were being exported to countries where the local population would have to smoke several hundred a day if it was for domestic use.
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Its pretty big bussiness for the paramilitary groups here, the loyalist groups even buy ciggarettes from the republican groups to sell in local pubs/clubs.
 
wont be long now before i'm handing over a tenner for a pack of 20 and getting 2p change

i said i'd quit when they hit a fiver for 20 and that never happened!
 
cm1179 said:
wont be long now before i'm handing over a tenner for a pack of 20 and getting 2p change

i said i'd quit when they hit a fiver for 20 and that never happened!
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As long as your earnings go up in line with the price, who cares?

Have you not noticed the corrolation between the cheapest cigarettes and minimum wage?

The earnings threshold for tax goes up about the same amount as the extra duty of fags, i would be more worried about the fuel bills.
 
Noticed they have started selling packs of 14 now as well? still costs around £5 though. Also, a few of my friends started smoking pouched tobacco as it lasted them longer.

I used to smoke L&B, then moved down to Richmond Superkings as soon as the prices got above £5. Richmond SUperkings used to be £4.80 (i used to save the 20p's from the change) they ended up way over £5 a few weeks later, now i'm onto JPS Superkings (John Player Special) taste the same as richmond, and depending where you go they cost £4.90 / £5.20. I usually just buy the 100 packs for £24.97 or something from ASDA. They seem to last me about a week and half, that will now cost me £27.50(ish) though now.

Wont be long until i move down to a cheaper brand again though though. Best part is despite all the tax i pay on ciggerettes, i still have to pay for my prescriptions at the pharmacy :lol:
 
robskinner said:
If I was in government I would simply increase the smoking age each year by one year. So people who can legally smoke today will always be able to, those who cant will never be able to, in 10 years it will be bloody obvious that a 16 year old is smoking illegally.
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I actually quite like this idea, however there is no such thing as a smoking age, only an age to buy tobacco, never seen anything done about underage smoking, just about stopping them buying from shops.
 
robskinner said:
If I was in government I would simply increase the smoking age each year by one year. So people who can legally smoke today will always be able to, those who cant will never be able to, in 10 years it will be bloody obvious that a 16 year old is smoking illegally.
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Abraham said:
I actually quite like this idea, however there is no such thing as a smoking age, only an age to buy tobacco, never seen anything done about underage smoking, just about stopping them buying from shops.
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why would they do that? without the tax on smoking the NHS would go down the crapper.

£2b out - £8b in, or whatever it is. Where are you going to make that £6b deficit up? put it on petrol perhaps? ;)

B@
 
B@Th*nG said:
why would they do that? without the tax on smoking the NHS would go down the crapper.

£2b out - £8b in, or whatever it is. Where are you going to make that £6b deficit up? put it on petrol perhaps? ;)

B@
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The whole point of this thread is that while those are the headline figures they're obviously not realistic, primarily because tobacco duty isn't ringfenced for the NHS. The likely net impact to government coffers might be a couple of bn, but that would be a gradual increase up until everyone who was allowed to smoke died off.
 
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