Budget 2012 slashes duty free cigarettes, taxes beer

Greg Thom
May 09, 2012
Herald Sun

SMOKERS have been hit like never before, with a clampdown on duty-free cigarettes and tobacco police to enforce new plain packaging laws.

From September 1 the government will reduce the inbound duty free allowance for international travellers to 50 cigarettes or 50 grams of tobacco.

Scrapping the duty free perk will rip an extra $600 million from smokers’ pockets over four years.

The measure will raise $115 million in its first year rising to $175 million by 2015.

The move followed a call by the Heart Foundation and National Stroke Foundation.

They called for the extra revenue to be pumped into health programs aimed at preventing heart attacks and stroke.

Under existing rules, in-bound travellers aged over 18 are allowed to bring into Australia 250 cigarettes or 250g of tobacco products tax-free.

The duty free rise comes as the Government is set to increase its take in tobacco tax revenue by $60 million to more than $5.8 billion.

The tobacco industry is under assault from health care providers trying to get Australians to stop smoking and the Federal Government’s determined campaign to introduce plain packaging.

Canberra will spend $3 million over the next year policing its new plain packaging laws, including snap inspections of cigarette retailers including supermarkets and tobacconists.

Beer drinkers won’t escape the Budget pain, contributing an estimated $2.183 billion to Federal Government coffers over the next 12 months.

The $75 million tax revenue rise comes despite a fall in the number of Aussies enjoying a pot to the lowest level in 65 years.
Canberra is looking to steadily increase its take from the amber fluid by another $200 million by 2015.

Australian Hotels Association chief executive Brian Kearney said Australians who enjoy an ale were once again copping it in the hip pocket.

“The continuing tax grab by government directed towards drinkers whom Canberra sees as basically just a soft target is disappointing from our point of view,” he said.

Mr Kearney said the bucket of money flowing from drinkers in the form of taxes was particularly disappointing, given great strides have been made in responsible alcohol consumption and the impact on drinkers’ health.

“The days when Australia was top of the international drinking table are long gone,” he said.

Mr Kearney was particularly critical of the twice yearly automatic tax rises applied to alcohol.

“The creeping CPI-based tax increases year by year results in the price of a pot over the bar increasing by 20c per annum,” Mr Kearney said.