CIGARETTE prices aren’t going up again as a tobacco duty rise wasn’t included in today’s Spring Statement.
Smokers won’t have to pay more for a pack as Chancellor Rishi Sunak didn’t announce plans to hike rates in today’s announcement, as expected.
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The Chancellor unveiled his Spring Statement in the House of Commons this afternoon.
A hike wasn’t expected today as the duty is usually changed in the Autumn Budget.
Tobacco duty is a tax charged to companies making or importing cigarettes in the UK.
When the tax is raised, the cost is passed on to consumers who have to pay more for tobacco products in the shops.
Booze prices will also stay the same as no change to beer duty was announced today.
But drivers will benefit from a cut to fuel duty which was slashed by 5p per litre – or £3.30 for a full tank – from tonight.
Cigarette prices were last hiked in October, when 88p was added to the most expensive packs of fags, increasing their cost from £12.73 to just over £13.60.
The cheapest 20 packs jumped by 63p from £9.10 to £9.73.
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Rolling tobacco was also affected and it goes up at a faster rate than pre-made cigarettes.
The cost of a 30g pouch soared from from £15.60 to £17.30 – an increase of as much as £1.70.
Duty rates on all tobacco products were hiked by RPI inflation plus 2% and hand-rolling tobacco by RPI plus 6%.
That was when RPI was at 4.9%, which means cigarettes rocketed by 6.9% and rolling tobacco by a whopping 10.9%.
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the Treasury raised a hefty £9.7 billion from tobacco duties in the 2019/20 tax year.
The average cost of a pack of 20 cigarettes rose by 22p in 2020, when the Chancellor announced an above-inflation tax increase of 2%.
The Spring Statement included major changes to the tax system, in a bid to tackle the cost of living crisis.
Mr Sunak announced that the earnings threshold at which people start paying National Insurance tax will be raised from £9,500 to £12,500.
It means hundreds of thousands of families will pay less – and some of the very lowest earners will dodge the extra charge altogether.
The government is also doubling the Household Support Fund to £1billion.
That means the schemes can be extended beyond the initial March 31 closing date.
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