The Dairy and Business Owners’ Group is calling for a halt to the 7.2% ($130) hike in tobacco taxes on New Year’s Day, that’ll take taxes and GST on that tax, to a massive $1,930 a kilogram.

“We urgently call on the government to halt this 7.2% increase on 1 January as it throws petrol onto the crime emergency fire,” says Sunny Kaushal, Chair of the Dairy and Business Owner’s Group.

“On 1 January, tobacco tax and GST on that tax goes up 7.2%. This takes just the taxes on tobacco we stress, to $1,930 a kilogram.

“We call upon the government to suspend the Excise and Excise-equivalent Duties Table (Tobacco Products Indexation) Amendment Order 2022.

“Unless stopped, at $1.93 per gram, just the tobacco tax and related GST is 30% more valuable than silver and worth 130 times more than titanium. Thugs and criminals know that robbing us is way more profitable than robbing a silver mine. How could we have come to this?

“We're bleeding while the real culprit wags their collective finger at us while raking in far more money than us and even those who make cigarettes. That's the Government.

“Last year, government earned well over $2.1 billion from tobacco as that’s just the excise tax and GST on the excise tax.

“It’s not only us being robbed. The Ministry of Health’s own information says 211,000 daily smokers are among the poorest in New Zealand. We’re bleeding from crime while the poorest are extorted by huge taxes that have only ever gone in one direction and thar’s up.

“How can the Minister of Childhood Poverty Reduction, or the Associate Minister of Health, speak with a straight face when their tax increase on 1 January will take millions more off the poorest? It’s not as if Kiwis don’t have high inflation or a cost-of-living crisis either.

“As ASH Chair Professor Robert Beaglehole told Newstalk ZB and Radio Waatea last week, what’s slashed smoking is vaping because it’s cheaper, better and safer than cigarettes. It’s also mostly safer for our people to sell. Massive taxes have not worked unless your government or a criminal.

“Kiwis need to talk about ‘precious-metal’ like taxes that’s doing real harm in society. In the meantime, we must stop the tobacco tax increase on 1 January. It doesn’t take a criminologist to figure the link between taxes, high prices, desperation and the crime emergency,” Mr Kaushal said.

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