Starting September 1, 2014, Monday, smokers will have to pay more money for every cigarette stick after the new excise tax on the product is put into effect.
In an effort to reduce the number of smokers in the country, as well as the associated costs with its production and treatments for smoke-related diseases, the government has implemented an increase in collectible taxes, driving the prices of a pack of 40 sticks to as much as $18.51, a whopping increase of more than 50%. A 20-cigarette pack, meanwhile, will already cost $9.24 from $8.13. This may push the price per stick to close to a dollar, a price that can surely hurt any person's pocket.
The health ministry headed by Peter Dutton expects that with this change, over 55,000 smokers will be pushed to quit as the annual cost of smoking may already be $7,000. They also anticipate the decrease in overall tobacco revenue. Thus, in their latest budget, they have already reduced it to $500 million.
The price of the cigarettes has increased over the last few months. In December, it went up to close to 13 percent. The next increase was on September 1. There will be two more of these price hikes within the next few years.
Over the last 24 years, the number of daily smokers among 14 years old and above has gone down to over 35%, thanks to its massive campaigns including TV ads, cigarette ad bans, and increase in excise taxes.
Nevertheless, there are still 8 million people between 18 years and above who smoke and close to 4 million do so on a daily basis. It also has a huge impact on health care costs. From 2004 to 2005, the number of hospital stays due to smoking was almost 800,000 while the costs ballooned to $670 million. The government hopes that by preventing or reducing smoking, the rate of preventable diseases such as hypertension, emphysema, asthma, and even renal diseases will also more than likely drop.