Smokers told to cough up again

Apparently smokers still aren't paying enough tax. The government is looking into the idea of taxing tobacco companies to claw back the £40 million that cigarette litter supposedly costs to clean up each year.

This tax will inevitably be passed on to Britain's seven million smokers who already pay £11 billion a year in tobacco duty (including the VAT on the duty). Simple maths tells you that the average smoker is paying more than £1,500 a year in tobacco taxes alone. But it's never enough for the depraved fanatics at ASH who have suddenly become interested in littering.

 

The plans were welcomed by Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), the anti-smoking charity Deborah Arnott, its chief executive, said that the group was “delighted that ministers are working collaboratively to use environmental legislation to make tobacco manufacturers clear up the toxic waste caused by cigarette butts”.

 

Toxic waste, my foot. Arnott is only pretending to care about this because it gives her another excuse to extract money from some of the poorest people in the country.

The Times also asked me to comment...  

Christopher Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, the think tank, said: “This tax will inevitably be passed on to smokers who already give the government £11 billion a year. Britain has some of the highest tobacco taxes in the world and they fall disproportionately on those with the lowest incomes.”

He added: “If the government was serious about cigarette litter, it would provide appropriate street bins.”