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Budget 2023-24: smokers hit with HK$12 hike a pack but Hong Kong still trails others in region in taxing tobacco

  • Government’s 31 per cent tax increase, effective immediately, pushes cost of pack of cigarettes to HK$73.75
  • Authorities hope to take smoking rate down to 7.8 per cent by 2025 with new measure, government source says

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A convenience store signals the immediate increase in the cost of cigarettes to customers. Photo: May Tse

Smokers in Hong Kong must pay HK$12 (US$1.53) more for a pack of cigarettes after the finance chief upped the tax on tobacco on Wednesday in a move designed to cut the number of smokers by 100,000 in the next three years and also boost the government’s coffers.

The 31 per cent tax hike pushed the average cost of a pack of cigarettes to HK$73.75, and some convenience stores raised the retail price immediately.

“Increasing tobacco duty is recognised internationally as the most effective means to reduce tobacco use,” Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said in his budget speech. “A rise in cigarette price will increase the incentive of smokers to reduce or quit smoking.”

A store sign alerts customers to the immediate HK$12 increase in the cost of cigarettes announced in the budget. Photo: May Tse
A store sign alerts customers to the immediate HK$12 increase in the cost of cigarettes announced in the budget. Photo: May Tse

The minister sought to assure the public the government had carefully considered the impact of the higher price on less well-off smokers.

“With inflation and other factors, [previous tax rates’] effectiveness in encouraging the people to smoke less or quit smoking has faded out gradually, so we are increasing by 30 per cent this time,” he said at a press conference.

The government estimated the price increase would bring in an extra HK$1 billion a year in revenue.

Making smoking more expensive was part of the government’s public health measures unveiled in the budget.

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