European Commission proposes moves to increase tax on cigarettes and reduce influence of tobacco industry

doi:10.1136/bmj.a873

Published 17 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a873
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a873

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European Commission proposes moves to increase tax on cigarettes and reduce influence of tobacco industry

Rory Watson

¹ Brussels

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The European Commission has proposed increasing the minimumrate of excise duty on cigarettes by 50% as part of its widerpublic health strategy of discouraging smoking in the 27 memberbloc.

Announcing the initiative this week, Laszlo Kovacs, the TaxationCommissioner, said: "Today’s proposal supports the EUpolicy to reduce tobacco consumption and narrow the differencesin price levels of tobacco products within the EU."

He quoted the World Bank, which maintains that price increasesin tobacco products are the most effective way of preventingsmoking, especially among young people who are generally moreresponsive to higher prices than their elders. The commissionpointed out that a 10% price increase could reduce cigaretteconsumption in high income countries by 4% on average.

Under the proposal, the current minimum excise duty of ${euro}$ 64 (£51,$100) per 1000 cigarettes would rise to ${euro}$ 90 by 2014. The increasewould not lead to . . . [Full text of this article]