Section 77: Rates of Tobacco Products Duty
Summary
1.This section provides for changes in the rates of excise duty on tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars, hand-rolling tobacco, other smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco) to have effect from 6pm on 19 March 2014.
Details of the Section
2.Subsection (1) substitutes a new table of rates of duty into Schedule 1 to the Tobacco Products Duty Act 1979. The duty rates on tobacco products are changes as follows:
Cigarettes – the ad valorem element remains unchanged at 16.5 per cent; the specific duty is increased from £176.22 to £184.10 per 1000 cigarettes.
Cigars – increased from £219.82 to £229.65 per kilogram.
Hand-rolling tobacco – increased from £172.74 to £180.46 per kilogram; and
other smoking tobacco and chewing tobacco – increased from £96.64 to £100.96 per kilogram.
3.Subsection (2) provides for the new table of duty rates to have effect from 6pm on 19 March 2014.
Background Note
4.Smoking kills half of all long-term users and is the biggest single cause of inequalities in death rates between the richest and poorest in the UK. The Government is committed to maintaining high tobacco duty rates to support health objectives and the public finances. Research has consistently shown that the price of tobacco products negatively affects demand.
5.This section increases the excise duty on all tobacco products by 2 per cent above the rate of inflation (Retail Price Index). The Government will continue to raise all tobacco duties rates by 2 per cent above inflation each year between 2015-16 and 2019-20 inclusive.
6.The duty increase, together with consequential VAT, will on average increase the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes by 24p, a pack of 5 small cigars by 8p, a 25 gram pack of hand-rolling tobacco by 23p; and a 25 gram pack of pipe tobacco by 13p.