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Cigarette Duty Rise Is Yet Another Reason To Stop
March always provides one reason to try giving up smoking with National No Smoking Day taking place on March 8th. But now a second has arrived.
The Budget regularly increases tobacco duty, although the speech itself has been switched back and forth between spring and autumn.
Now back in its traditional March spot, the speech will have been watched with all the usual eagerness by everyone, be they householders concerned about energy bills, parents keen to learn about new childcare incentives or drinkers hoping for a cut in beer duty.
However, smokers, who, unusually, didn’t face a rise last year, probably expected their fate and it arrived with a hefty hike in tobacco duty of Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation plus two per cent. Considering the first of those figures is currently 10.1 per cent, makes buying a packet of cigarettes a rather more costly thing to do. In addition, hand-rolled tobacco was up by RPI plus six per cent.
All this means now could be a good time to get quit smoking aids in the UK, ensuring that at least one hike in the cost of living does not end up burning a hole in your pocket, irrespective of what it may do to your heart and lungs.
The BBC calculated that as the typical pack of 20 cigarettes was £12.84 in January according to the Office for National Statistics, it would now rise up to £14.39.
With not one but two good reasons to stop smoking this month, now may be the time to finally take that step and quit for good. With the right products to help you on your way, you won’t be stuck doing cold turkey for a few weeks.
Once you have stopped, you will be glad you did and reap many health benefits, as well as saving yourself some money in these financially-strapped times, when most days it is your own budget you have to worry about.
