The cost of quitting smoking and remaining smoke free could potentially become a lot more expensive, according to a leaked Impact Assessment Report on the revision of the Tobacco Excise Directive. The Directive sets minimum rates of excise duty which will be applied to tobacco and tobacco-related products.
The impact assessment notes that declines in smoking prevalence across the EU have been tragically slow. Smoking prevalence decreased by a mere 4 percentage points from 2012 to 2023, falling from 28% to 24%.
The impact assessment also notes that new safer nicotine products (SNPs) such as vapes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products have been introduced into the market in recent years as substitutes for smoked tobacco products. As they have been recently introduced to the market they are not captured by the current directive.
ETHRA has often pointed out that substituting SNPs for far more harmful combustible tobacco products can help accelerate declines in smoking and provide a win for public health as combustible tobacco is responsible for virtually all tobacco-related morbidity and mortality.
However, one of the objectives of the impact assessment states:
- discourage tax induced substitution between different tobacco products and their substitutes within the short term;
The impact assessment also notes that Illicit (tax-evaded) trade of tobacco products represents a major, persistent threat to the functioning of the internal market and that illicit trade undermines tobacco control policy causing adverse public health effects and distorts competition.
The proposed high taxation rates on vapes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco products will encourage tax evasion and will expose consumers to unregulated products of unknown origin and quality.
ETHRA has made these and many other points clear in a letter that got support from scientific and public health experts