Australia’s efforts to stamp out smoking have sent cigarette prices soaring and created a thriving black-market tobacco industry. Canberra charges tobacco companies $1.53 ($1.08 USD) per cigarette. The result is that a pack costs $40 USD of which around 70% is tax. Duties have been ratcheting up for a decade, and smoking rates fell from about 22.3% in 2001 to 10.6% in 2022. But Nikkei reports that a report found that 55% of tobacco sold in Australia is now illicit, fueling gang violence, including hundreds of fire-bombings of tobacco stores. The availability of contraband tobacco means experts fear smoking rates could increase this year for the first time in decades.
Ajaxcricket on
Laffer curve deniers in shambles
el__dandy on
Most predictable outcome tbh. Don’t get me wrong, taxing cigarettes does curtail consumption, but the reality is that if the consumer price is too high, it becomes unpalletable to purchase it in a legal way when the contraband way is cheap and mostly safe.
This reminds me of the cigarette taxes in NY. IIRC, the contraband market is around 60% of the total cigarette market and it mostly comes from neighboring states and Indian reservations. Australia like NY needs a different approach.
The black market would probably be a lot worse if they were not an island
hypsignathus on
I was a first gen college student from a solidly working-middle class family. As I age, and as Ive experienced more of life and the world, the thing that stands out to me most about my (very elite) college experience is just how ridiculously wealthy my friends and associates were.
Elite colleges in the US should actively expand their reach to earn their outsized govt funding.
Honestly, I’m slightly tipsy and reminiscent now, and the first thing that pops into my mind is “wow all my friends had trust funds. Fucking weird”
6 Comments
Australia’s efforts to stamp out smoking have sent cigarette prices soaring and created a thriving black-market tobacco industry. Canberra charges tobacco companies $1.53 ($1.08 USD) per cigarette. The result is that a pack costs $40 USD of which around 70% is tax. Duties have been ratcheting up for a decade, and smoking rates fell from about 22.3% in 2001 to 10.6% in 2022. But Nikkei reports that a report found that 55% of tobacco sold in Australia is now illicit, fueling gang violence, including hundreds of fire-bombings of tobacco stores. The availability of contraband tobacco means experts fear smoking rates could increase this year for the first time in decades.
Laffer curve deniers in shambles
Most predictable outcome tbh. Don’t get me wrong, taxing cigarettes does curtail consumption, but the reality is that if the consumer price is too high, it becomes unpalletable to purchase it in a legal way when the contraband way is cheap and mostly safe.
This reminds me of the cigarette taxes in NY. IIRC, the contraband market is around 60% of the total cigarette market and it mostly comes from neighboring states and Indian reservations. Australia like NY needs a different approach.
(laughs [in Canadian](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6957707/))
The black market would probably be a lot worse if they were not an island
I was a first gen college student from a solidly working-middle class family. As I age, and as Ive experienced more of life and the world, the thing that stands out to me most about my (very elite) college experience is just how ridiculously wealthy my friends and associates were.
Elite colleges in the US should actively expand their reach to earn their outsized govt funding.
Honestly, I’m slightly tipsy and reminiscent now, and the first thing that pops into my mind is “wow all my friends had trust funds. Fucking weird”