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.