Prices of cigarettes and rolling tobacco to increase from 6pm tonight

12 March 2020, 12:44

By Alice Dear

Smokers will see a rise in the cost of their cigarettes from this evening as changes are made in the Chancellor's budget.

Cigarette and rolling tobacco prices are set to rise.

The government's budget revealed that packets of cigarettes will go up by 27p, which is a two percent inflation.

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While it was not announced in this week's budget speech by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the rise in tobacco tax has been outlined in the government documents.

On average, the most expensive pack of cigarettes from your local supermarket will currently cost you £12.46.

However, after 6pm this evening – March 12 – that price will rise to £12.73.

On average, the cheapest pack of 20 cigarettes will cost you £8.82, a price that will rise in a number of hours to £9.10.

People that smoke hand-rolled cigarettes will also be affected by the rise as tax on hand-rolling tobacco will rise by 6 percent.

This will add an extra 67p to the price of a 30g bag of tobacco.

Chief executive of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), Deborah Arnott has revealed they are pleased with the changes, but still think more needs to be done.

She said: "Despite successive years of tax increases, the past failure to close the gap in tax on handrolled tobacco has kept smokers smoking who might otherwise quit.

"Thousands of smokers have switched to cheaper hand rolled tobacco in recent years.

"We welcome the Government’s efforts to address this, but it must go beyond a single year."

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