According to the World Bank, high taxes on tobacco are the single most effective intervention to prevent smoking.
According to the World Bank, high taxes on tobacco are the single most effective intervention to prevent smoking. The European Community has a history of more than 30 years of regulating the taxes on tobacco products. On 12 February 2002 the Council of the European Union adopted Directive 2002/10/EC as regards the structure and rates of excise duty applied on manufactured tobacco. This Directive sets, amongst others, the required incidence of excise duty on the retail selling price of cigarettes at 57%, and also establishes that the overall minimum excise duty shall not be less than 64 ‚¬ per 1000 cigarettes of the price category most in demand from 1 July 2006. Eight of the ten countries, which joined the European Community in May 2004, have obtained additional transition periods to obtain these rates.
This position paper represents a A public health perspective for the review of the EU tax policy on tobacco products. The position paper is endorsed by: