SMOKERS will have to pay more for rolling tobacco as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced plans to hike tax rates.
Mr Hunt has today revealed a range of plans relating to tax rises, benefits and pension payments during his Autumn Statement.
copyright 2022 Rafa EliasThe cost of rolling tobacco is going up by 10% this evening[/caption]
The Autumn Statement provides an update on the government’s plans for the economy.
These are issued twice a year, once at the Budget in the spring and once at the Autumn Statement.
Mr Hunt presents the plans for the next year during a speech in the House of Commons which includes tax and spending changes.
And the Chancellor today announced the government will increase duty on hand-rolling tobacco by 10% tonight.
He said: “I am going to increase duty on hand-rolling tobacco by an additional 10% above the tobacco duty escalator.”
Tobacco duty is a tax charged to companies making or importing cigarettes in the UK.
When the tax is raised, the cost is passed on to consumers who have to pay more for tobacco products in the shops.
A hike wasn’t expected as it is usually changed in the Spring Budget.
The price of cigarettes usually increases with inflation each year unless the Chancellor intervenes to freeze the rates.
The previous increase was revealed earlier this year in April, which saw the price of a pack of cigs increase by over 12%.
This took the price of an average pack of 20 cigarettes to £14.39 from £12.84 – an increase of £1.55.
That’s because cigarette levies went by 10.1% in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI), plus an extra minimum of 2% on top which is applied to pre-rolled tobacco products.
The RPI is a measure of inflation that’s published monthly and is used to measure the change in the cost of retail goods and services.
Meanwhile, hand-rolling tobacco went up by 10.1% plus an added 6%.
Rolling tobacco does tend to go up at a faster rate than pre-made cigarettes.
Campaigners called the Chancellor “heartless and cruel” after that increase.
Before that, cigarette prices were increased in the 2021 Budget.
At the time, 88p was added to the most expensive pack – which saw its price go up from £12.73 to just over £13.60.
In 2020, the Chancellor announced an above-inflation tax increase on fags of 2%.
Rishi Sunak intervened and froze rates in his Spring 2022 Budget, when he was Chancellor in Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
Taxing tobacco is a huge revenue-raiser for the government, with £10.7billion collected in 2022, which was 1.2% of the total tax taken.
Mr Sunak, now Prime Minister, previously revealed he wants to make Britain “smoke-free” by 2040.
In his speech at the Conservative Party conference this year in Manchester, he announced that children currently under 14 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes in their lifetime.
The hope is that the ever-increasing price of cigs will deter more people from buying them.
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