Election fever? Chancellor postpones vape levy until October 2026
Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at 16:45 Well, that was a surprise.
Having let it be known for weeks that he was going to introduce a levy on vaping products to discourage children and never smokers from taking up the habit, the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, did indeed introduce a vape tax in today's Budget statement.
The unexpected twist was that the measure won't be introduced until October 2026, by which time the Tories are very unlikely to be in government!
Meanwhile, having also floated the idea of a further "one-off" tax hike on tobacco in order to maintain the difference in cost between tobacco and vaping products, Hunt announced that the additional tax would be introduced at the same time as the vape levy.
If you're confused I don't blame you because following the Chancellor's announcement the BBC News website immediately reported that 'Hunt has introduced a new levy on vaping' and 'There will also be a one-off increase in tobacco duty', implying it would happen immediately because there was no mention of the critical date, October 2026.
Moreover, what no-one has reported is that there are no other changes to excise duty on tobacco in today's Budget - including the annual escalator (inflation plus two per cent) - so tobacco duty has effectively been frozen, for now at least.
Why this should be the case is a bit of a mystery, but I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that previous hikes in tobacco duty were reported to have increased the rate of inflation, and that's the last thing the Government wants or needs ahead of a general election.
I should add that I don’t for one second think that a future Labour government will repeal Hunt’s vaping levy. If anything, they might impose even harsher duties on tobacco and vapes.
Either way, Forest's response is reported by Asian Trader here – Hunt announces extra tax on vaping from 2026.
We’ve also been quoted by the Press Association, the Independent, Daily Mirror, London Evening Standard, and several more.
Update: The Sun is reporting that 'The price of cigarettes is set to rise to an eye-watering £16 following a one-off increase of £2 per 100 cigarettes or 50 grams of tobacco'.
Don't know where they got those figures from but I assume they are referring to the 'one-off increase' scheduled for October 2026. We’ll see.
Update: The figures above were obtained from Spring Budget 2024 Policy Costings (page 26). And, yes, they do refer to the October 2026 increase.
Reader Comments (3)
That's it then for now, we won!! This is great news, that tobacco prices will be left unaffected from inflation until October 2026 while the rate of inflation is left unaffected from currently exorbitant tobacco product prices! This Conservative government and its policies express me and the interests I happen to have immensely by doing this, when Rishi Sunak was Boris Johnson's Chancellor he did the same for one year in 2021! It gives me a voting incentive in their favour since I also support Reform UK! Congratulations! Let's enjoy our long-deserved smoking break!
Costas, I wouldn’t describe this as a victory, more a stay of execution. The increase scheduled for October 2026 is substantial and I would be very surprised if tobacco duties are not increased before then in line with the annual tobacco escalator (inflation plus two per cent).
I thought it was interesting that Hunt chose not to increase tobacco duties yesterday (although he did increase them twice last year, including as recently as November), but it’s certainly not cause for celebration, or a reason to vote Conservative under this prime minister and chancellor!
Neither a stay of execution nor a victory of any kind, in my opinion. It's merely a scam used as window dressing to manipulate figures by a Government desperate for any votes as it marginalises varying groups of voters. It thinks holding off until October 2026 will fool enough voters to bag a few seats.
None of the parties are worth voting for. They all have politicians with small minds and little ideas who can't think of anything more original to improve life than to force people to stop smoking while jumping aboard the next fashion fad, such as unprocessed food which seems to be the current Metropolitan fear of the moment.
I wish Reform would give me a reason to vote for them but I see none. Not even those parties that say they believe in freedom believe that smoking is as an important freedom issue as the many obvious and trendy others that are also under threat today.
All we can hope is that either a Labour Government or God forbid another Conservative government end up alienating so many people with joyless, miserable, and punitive policies that eventually there is some kind of revolt against it all.
Democracy doesn't work in the hands of politicians who are too keen on pushing their own agendas in search of some pathetic small personal legacy.