The average pack of cigarettes now costs almost £2 more than they did yesterday.
The considerable price hike came as a rise in tobacco duty was announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt during his Spring Budget yesterday. The price of cigarettes and tobacco rose at 6pm yesterday after the announcement.
The ONS said the average pack of cigarettes cost £12.84 before yesterday's rise. The increase saw £1.89 added, meaning the average pack now costs £14.73, almost 15% more than previous.
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The cigarette levy is to rise by 12.7% in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) with an extra 2% on top. The rate of hand-rolling tobacco will increase by the RPI figure plus 6%.
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Campaigners accused the Chancellor of being "heartless and cruel" with his pledge to increase tobacco duty. The move is expected to affect more than six million smokers in the UK.
Simon Clark, director of the smokers' group Forest, said: "Punishing smokers for their habit during a cost of living crisis is heartless and cruel. This is bad news for legitimate, law-abiding retailers, and bad news for the Treasury which could lose billions of pounds in revenue if more smokers buy their tobacco from illicit traders."
In 2022, the Government collected around £10.7 billion from tobacco taxes, which was 1.2% of the total tax taken.
Costs are going up each year, however the last time cigarette prices were increased was in October 2021 when 88p was added to the most expensive pack increasing it from £12.73 to just over £13.60.
The Government is hoping that frequent price rises will lead to less than 5% of the population being smokers by 2030, which will then class the UK as being "smoke free".
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