The Daily Mirror (UK) (3/11, Munbodh) reports cigarette prices increases were to take effect in the U.K. on Wednesday, rising six percent “across the board” according to a decision “hidden in the small print of Rishi Sunak’s Budget 2020 speech.” The Mirror states, “Duty rates on all tobacco products will increase by 2% from Wednesday – while the rate on hand-rolling tobacco will increase by 6% this year.”
The Daily Mirror (UK) (3/11, Smith) reports separately on “13 nasty details” in the budget that “Tories won’t want you to read.” One of them is that “the duty on roll-ups, used by some of the most skint smokers, is rising by far more than that on ordinary cigarettes. For most tobacco products it’s RPI inflation plus 2%; for hand-rolling tobacco it’s RPI plus 6%.”
This Is Money (UK) (3/11, Sebastian) also reports on key points from the Budget.
Action On Smoking and Health (UK) (3/11) reports Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) “is pleased to see the tax escalator on cigarettes will continue at 2% above inflation (RPI) for the duration of this Parliament.” ASH “also welcomes the uprating of minimum excise tax (MET) on cigarettes.” ASH advises, however, that more is “needed to achieve Government ambition of a Smokefree 2030.” Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of ASH, said, “the past failure to close the gap in tax on handrolled tobacco has kept smokers smoking who might otherwise quit…We welcome the Government’s efforts to address this, but it must go beyond a single year.”
