Price of cigarettes soars to record high, Spring Budget 2024 confirms – check how much you’ll pay
THE cost of a packet of cigarettes will top £16 following today's Budget.
The Treasury imposed a dramatic increase in tobacco duty to ensure a tax on vapes keeps smoking alternatives cheaper.
Last year Jeremy Hunt added £1.55 to a pack of 20 cigarettes.
The average cost of a 20-pack is currently £14.39 - making Britain one of the most expensive places to smoke in Europe.
But now prices are set to rise to an eye-watering £16.
In France, cigs cost about £9 per pack compared to £7 in the Netherlands and £6.50 in Germany.
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The move comes as part of Rishi Sunak’s tough stance on smoking - with the PM known to personally be extremely anti-tobacco.
At a party conference last year he unveiled plans to outlaw smoking for anyone born after 2009 by raising the legal age of buying fags by one year every year.
Disposable vapes will be banned as part of a clampdown announced earlier this year.
The Budget also saw a new vape tax imposed on imported e-cigs and manufacturers to make them unaffordable for kids.
The duty will apply to the liquid in vapes, with higher levels for products with more nicotine.
Sources say the extra tax hike on fags was designed to ensure that vapes are still the cheaper option for smokers.
The two new levies will likely bring in half a billion pounds to the struggling Treasury coffers.
But tobacco firms have warned the soaring price of fags is driving illegal black market sales.
Sarah Connor of JTI UK said: “Unreasonable tobacco taxes fuel criminal sales of illegal tobacco, cost taxpayers’ money and drive up inflation.”
JTI research suggests that a quarter of cigarettes and 38 per cent of rolling tobacco sold in the UK swerves tax.
Price of vapes rise
VAPE prices are set to rise after Jeremy Hunt whacked a new tax on e-cigs in today's Spring Budget.
The tax will be imposed on imported e-cigs and manufacturers to make them unaffordable for kids.
It comes after a ban on disposable vapes was announced earlier this year as part of a clampdown.
The duty will apply to the liquid in vapes, with higher levels for products with more nicotine.
The vape tax is being modelled on schemes in other European countries, such as Germany which imposed a €1.60 duty on every 10ml of vape liquid.
