The Tobacco Industry Is Low Key Losing It Over Jacked Up Durry Tax

One of the most hotly predicted parts of this weeks Federal Budget was the increased cigarette tax – which will peg the increase in tax by 12.5% every year for the next four years. That means $40 bucks for pack in the very near future.
But seasoned puffers are unlikely to ditch the darts, obviously. News.com.au have written a summary of the past few years of the illegal tobacco black market, which some claim is set to rake in some serious dosh when legit avenues become way too pricey. The assumption is that these kind of hikes will be a boon for illegal growers and importers.
But here’s the deal. Yeah – Australia has a pretty massive contingent of illegal durry huffers. By some accounts, 14.3% of all tobacco in Australia is bought from illegal importers. But the current quotes doing the rounds in the media are from a group called Alliance of Australian Retailers. News.com.au quotes General Manager Chiang Lim, who said “I can understand why some would say this is fantastic anti-smoking measure, but police need to realise there are unintended consequences.”

But the Alliance of Australian Retailers isn’t actually a hardscrabble group of Aussie retail battlers doing it tough – it’s a front for the tobacco industry. The AAR was also a deployed tactic during the battle over plain packaging laws. It’s funded by Philip Morris, Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco. They got in a lot of hot water for trying to pitch it as a grassroots movement rather than a front for a tobacco consortium.

Their website is currently ‘under construction’, so I guess it’s being geared up for a big fight over tobacco tax including nice graphics and stock photos of angry looking shop owners.
It’s worth keeping an eye on the organisations that mount a defence over the coming months and where the dosh is actually coming from.
Source: News.com.au.
Photo: Getty Images / Ryan Pierse

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