Higher tobacco tax: cigarette lobby warns government of booming black market

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Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa

The federal government's plans for higher tobacco tax revenues have alarmed the advocacy group in the cigarette industry.

She warns of a strengthening of the black market.

If the tax burden for e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters is increased significantly, the price for these products could rise by up to 100 percent, said the chief executive of the Federal Association of the Tobacco Industry and Novel Products (BVTE), Jan Mücke, in Berlin.

"Many consumers would not go along with this - the willingness to buy untaxed and counterfeit goods would increase." This threatens particularly serious damage, since such products have not been tested for safety.

High tax burden even with popular tobacco heaters

The Federal Cabinet could decide on the project in the coming week, after which it would be the turn of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

The Ministry of Finance is planning a gradual increase in tobacco tax in the period from 2022 to 2026. A pack of classic butts is expected to be 5 cents more expensive per year, which is 25 cents more than before.

Germans currently pay an average of around 7 euros per box, the majority of which goes to the state as taxes.

According to the bill, tobacco heater products should not be taxed like pipe tobacco - i.e. relatively low - but like cigarettes, which means that significantly more taxes would be due.

E-cigarettes and liquids, on the other hand, for which only sales tax has been charged so far, are to be included in tobacco tax legislation.

In the past few years, the state has received a little more than 14 billion euros in tobacco tax.

However, the volume has stagnated for years - because the proportion of smokers in the total population continues to decline.

In 1995, 42 percent of men in Germany and 29 percent of women smoked.

In 2018, however, it was only 24 percent of men and 18 percent of women

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beb / dpa