What happens to the consumption of heated tobacco according to the Customs Agency
Numbers, comparisons and scenarios on heated tobacco consumption. What emerges from the "Blue Book" of the Customs and Monopoly Agency: despite the forecasts of some think tanks in the sector, the collapse of tax revenues has not occurred
No increase in the number of smokers in Italy but rather a marked decline. And above all, no drop in revenue for sectoral taxation in spite of sector studies that hypothesized a collapse in revenue due to the difference in excise duties between traditional cigarettes and heated tobacco. This is what emerges from the data of the “ Blue Book” of the Customs and Monopoly Agency, presented last Friday.
THE DEMAND FOR TOBACCO
If over the last three years the overall demand for tobacco has decreased by approximately 1.2 million kg (-1.59 percent compared to 2017), driven by the reduction in cigarette consumption (-6.80 percent, in volume, from 2017) "part of this reduction – reads the Agency's Blue Book – is justified by the effect of awareness campaigns on the harmful effects of cigarettes on consumers' health and the phenomenon of substitution, in order of relevance , of smoke-free inhalation tobaccos ".
THE MARKET SHARES
In fact, if we consider tobaccos by quantity produced and sold, it should be noted that at a percentage level cigarettes still remain the best-selling: in 2019 their market share was 64.6% (down from 67.4% in 2018 and 72% in 2016), while the shares of other products such as cigarette shredders remain much lower (at 5% in 2019 but up from 4.7% in 2018) and inhalation tobaccos that have reached 3.3% last year (they were 1.5% the year before).
NO COLLAPSE IN TAX REVENUES
Not only. In spite of the forecasts of some think tanks in the sector, not even the much feared collapse in tax revenues has occurred: in fact, tax revenues remained stable at 13.9 billion ( VAT + excise duties). In fact, if compared with the data of previous years, it was found that in 2016 the revenue was equal to 14 billion euros, in 2017 to 13.8 billion euros and in 2018 to 13.9 billion euros with a slight decline in the four-year period , in the order of 1 per cent. "In particular in the reference period the value of VAT remained constant, therefore the decrease is due to the slight decrease in the value of the excise duty", reads the blue book of the Customs Agency which also highlights how in the last decade the revenue remained substantially unchanged despite the strong contraction in sales volumes of 17.56% “thanks to targeted interventions on taxation which allowed an increase in tax revenues of 2.98% over the last decade”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/cosa-succede-al-consumo-di-tabacco-riscaldato-secondo-lagenzia-delle-dogane/ on Mon, 14 Sep 2020 05:10:32 +0000.