The price of a pack of cigarettes will increase by an average of 1.08 pounds from tonight, it was confirmed in the Government’s autumn announcement.
In the House of Commons today, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled a series of plans to increase taxes, benefits and pension payments.
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Cigarettes grow within hours Credit: Getty
In his autumn statement he announced:
The chancellor said the price of rolling tobacco would rise by an “extra 10%” on top of the usual rise in the smokers’ shock.
But hidden in the government’s online autumn statement document was the news that the price of a pack of cigarettes would also rise.
Cigarette pack prices will increase by the standard retail price index (RPI) – a measure of inflation – plus 2%.
The government uses an RPI of 5.4%, which is the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast for the inflation rate in the second quarter of 2024.
This means a pack of 20 will go up by 7.4% – or £1.08.
The average price of a pack of 20 cigarettes in October was £14.59 – it will rise to £15.67 from 6pm.
The hand rolling tobacco rate will increase by the same RPI rate plus a whopping 12% – 17.4%.
Tobacco duty rates rise automatically every year, but the 17.4% figure will be a big blow to self-rolling smokers.
Campaigners strongly condemned Mr Hunt’s tobacco-rolling move, saying the chancellor had “raised two fingers at working-class people across the country”.
Simon Clark, director of smokers’ group Forest, said: “Raising duty on hand-rolled tobacco by such a punitive amount will push more smokers further into poverty or into the hands of illegal traffickers including criminal gangs.
“This is a clear attack on smokers from poorer backgrounds, many of whom use hand-rolled tobacco because it has previously been cheaper than buying manufactured cigarettes.”
He added: “Instead of punishing adult smokers with punitive taxes designed to force them to quit, the government should focus on the underlying reasons why a higher proportion of people from lower socio-economic backgrounds smoke.
“It’s often because of their environment, but instead of improving the conditions many people live in, this Tory government is determined to force smokers to give up the habit which could alleviate some of the stress caused by the environment.”
Tobacco tax is a tax levied on companies that manufacture or import cigarettes into the UK.
When the tax increases, the cost is passed on to consumers who have to pay more for tobacco products in stores.
The increase was not expected as it is usually changed in the spring budget.
The price of cigarettes usually rises with inflation every year unless the chancellor intervenes to freeze rates.
The previous increase was revealed earlier this year in April, when the price of a pack of cigarettes rose by more than 12%.
This took the average pack of 20 cigarettes to £14.39 from £12.84, an increase of £1.55.
This is because levies on cigarettes have risen by 10.1% in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI), plus an additional minimum of 2% on top of that applied to roll-your-own tobacco products.
The RPI is a measure of inflation that is published monthly and is used to measure the change in the price of retail goods and services.
Meanwhile, hand-rolled tobacco rose 10.1% plus an additional 6%.
Rolling tobacco tends to increase in price at a faster rate than finished cigarettes.
Campaigners called the chancellor “callous and cruel” after the increase.
Before that, cigarette prices were increased in the 2021 budget.
At the time, 88p was added to the most expensive package – which saw its price rise from £12.73 to just over £13.60.
In 2020, the chancellor announced a 2% increase in the tax on gays above inflation.
Rishi Sunak intervened and froze rates in his Spring 2022 Budget, when he was chancellor in Boris Johnson’s cabinet.
Tobacco taxation is a huge revenue raiser for the government, with £10.7 billion raised in 2022, which is 1.2% of total tax collected.
Mr Sunak, now Prime Minister, has previously revealed he wants to make Britain “smoke-free” by 2040.
In his speech at this year’s Conservative Party conference in Manchester, he announced that children currently under the age of 14 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes in their lifetime.
We hope that the ever-increasing prices of cigarettes will deter more and more people from buying them.
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Source: HIS Education