Cut duty on cigarettes?

deelite

OMD wrote: »

And if you buy them from your friend, what do you do with this €20 that you didn't spend on "newspaper/magazine/lotto ticket/sweets? Do you just throw it away? Unless you throw it away then you spend it somewhere.

Being totally honest with you I've been putting money in a piggy bank (one of the ones that you need a can-opener to get them open). And I bet I'm not the only one who has a jar/box like this.

Le King

OMD wrote: »

Your figures are basically flawed in that you assume the entire cost of cigs is tax. It is not. Allowing for that, The state would more likely loose out 1 billion a year.

Even if we accepted the €750 million (whicvh I don't) that means you think British people will come here and buy 4,000,000,000 cigs every year (for us simply to break even)! They will not

Obviously his figures would be flawed but the amount of people who would be purchasing cigarettes in Ireland would increase massively, especially if it was decreased to the €4.50 mark.

Apparently one in four cigarettes in Ireland smoked in Ireland is part of the illegal trade(2009). This year that figure is one in three, again not going to be accurate. Therefore of the government were to decrease the duty on fags by half. Let's not forget here also that the Government has to reduce the minimum pricing on cigarettes anyway due to the EU ruling here. This alone would knock off around a euro on the price and if the Government failed to act then, they would be seriously screwing themselves over.

They need to brought down to the €5.00 mark. Possibly lower. The Government seriously need to be on the ball here. The amount of smokers they would attract in The Republic by lowering the price would make up more than what is being lost atm.

The deterrent of increasing the price to stop people smoking has failed. Let's not forget about the shops here. They take in about 30-50 cent a box from selling the cigarettes. You can't just run money down the one line, you have to look at the big picture.

Ireland reducing the cost of cigarettes is win-win, IMO.

It's being brought up in the Seanad atm too. Read [URL="Reducing tobacco taxation will reduce smuggling and maximise revenue FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2010 AT 7:56AM On Wednesday in the Seanad Senator Eugene Regan (Fine Gael) made a point that Forest Eireann has highlighted in the past. He stated that, "In successive budgets the price of cigarettes and tobacco was raised to double that in the rest of Europe. The problem in this regard is that, apart from not succeeding in reducing the level of consumption of tobacco, an extraordinary illegal trade has been created from which criminal gangs and dissident republicans are benefiting". Senator Regan is both a senior counsel and an economist and he will know that falsely inflating the price of any legal product to ridiculous levels inevitably leads to the consumer finding alternative channels of supply. The attendant loss of revenue to the state due to constant tax increases in tobacco has reached the point where further increases must lead to an even larger drop in revenue. The persistent persecution of smokers has perversely led to a massive increase in smoking rates from a low of 23.5% (OTC figures 2008) to 31% (Eurostat figures 2010). During the same period Customs & Excise have been quoted as suggesting that 25% of tobacco consumed in Ireland is smuggled. If you factor in the same amount again for cigarettes and tobacco imported legally in bulk at drastically lower prices from Europe, there is a strong case to be made for reducing tobacco pricing in the Budget to bring it back into line with the EU norm. The overwhelming majority of smokers are decent ordinary citizens, forced into the arms of criminal smugglers because of flawed tobacco control policies in Ireland. We urge the Government to do the economically sensible thing and reduce tobacco taxation in order to maximise revenue and normalise this foolish situation."]here[/URL]

deelite

Totally agree with LeKing's post.

My other point is that when the gov. got rid of the 10 pack of smokes their reasoning was "to deter the under 18's buying smokes". I personally never bought from the "black market" when a pack of 10 was available.

Ellian

gizmo555 wrote: »

You're probably thinking of the report produced by consultants Arthur D Little for Philip Morris to show the Czech government how smoking related deaths were a nett financial gain for the state.

I have to say that when my father died at the age of 58 from smoking-induced lung cancer, my family was not exactly filled with pride that he had done his patriotic duty . . .

You might be right - I honestly don't remember. I just remember reading the article and thinking it would be interesting to get some accurate numbers and test the conclusions. No arguments from me that smoking is an unhealthy chemical addiction and people's lives are better off without it. And my sympathies on the untimely death of your father.