Australia has raised the tax rate of cigarette with an additional of $1 per pack this means smokers in the country will be paying a total of $1.12 per pack of 20 cigarettes. The aim of this price hike is to discourage Australian to smoke and to compel smokers to give up
smoking.
Health Minister Peter Dutton supported this sudden increase of cigarette from the original price of $8.13 to $9.24. He expects to get at least 200,000 Aussies to quit smoking. The sudden hike, as per the Sydney Morning Herald, is the second of four out-sized increases in as many years.
The Australia Government expects 1 billion lesser cigarettes to be sold and has therefore cut down on tobacco revenue by $500 million in this year's budget.
According to Mike Daube an Australian Council on Smoking and Health president, the recent price hike breaches significant price points. It will cost $7000 a year to smoke a pack of cigarette a day. He said that an estimation of around 800 million fewer cigarettes will be smoked in Australia and around 60,000 smokers will quit.
"It's also important that the tax increases are accompanying a great deal of publicity about the harms of smoking and measures such as plain packaging," added by Mr. Mike Daube.
Health Department's website posted a statistic that cigarette sale lower down by 3.4 per cent from 2012 to 2013. Last December 1, 2013, there was a 12.5 per cent of increase on tobacco product.
Aside from Australia's advancement, another improvement on the issue of cigarette smoking was recorded in Arizona. As per AZCentral.com, the County administrator Chuck Huckleberry issued a memo and according to which...
- Smokers will not be hired for county jobs.
- Employees will be tested for nicotine use.
- A surcharge for smokers will be levied, covered by the county health plan.