MEPs Tuesday backed a minimum tax of €1.28 per pack of 20 cigarettes within 3 years, in an effort to reduce smoking across Europe through higher prices.
MEPs Tuesday backed a minimum tax of €1.28 per pack of 20 cigarettes within 3 years, in an effort to reduce smoking across Europe through higher prices. At present tax on cigarettes varies widely from the equivalent of 75 cents in Lithuania to €5 in the UK. Around 1 in 3 adults across the EU either smoke or use tobacco on a regular basis, so will this move make some of them stop?
€1.50 within 5 years
The House also backed a call for taxes to rise to €1.50 per pack by 2014, in line with the report drafted by Hungarian MEP Zsolt Becsey, of the centre-right EPP-ED group. It's up to EU finance ministers as to whether they parliament's lead.
The European Commission believes that higher taxes on cigarettes could reduce consumption by 10% over the next five years. The World Bank also espouses the belief that higher taxation cuts smoking.
Between 2002 and 2006 consumption of cigarettes in EU decreased by 13% - a fall most marked in the West of the continent.
Higher smoking taxes - a drag?
Tell us what you think! Will higher taxes on tobacco make any difference or will they just discriminate against smokers?
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