Tobacco Companies and Excise Taxes

The tobacco industry would shoulder the bulk of the additional revenues generated from “sin” products should the current version of the excise-tax reform bill be implemented, data from the Department of Finance (DOF) showed. House Bill 5727, or “An Act Restructuring the Excise Tax on Alcohol and Tobacco Products,” is expected to generate an additional P31.35 billion in new revenues for the first year of implementation or in 2013, the data showed. Some 85 percent of this, or about P26.87 billion, would come from the tobacco companies; only a small portion would be shouldered by alcohol firms.

Cigarette Packaging with Warnings, Australia

British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco took their fight against the drab green boxes - designed to deter smokers - to the full bench of the High Court in April. But in a win for the Federal Government, a majority ruling by the High Court today dismissed their case. Responding to the judgment, British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) said tobacco plain packaging would lead to a spike in illegal cigarette sales. BATA spokesman Scott McIntyre said the company still believed the Government had no right to remove their intellectual property and was extremely disappointed by the court's ruling.

Graphic Cigarettes Warnings Required

A bid by tobacco companies to overrule a court judgment that they must do corrective advertising about the dangers of smoking is getting a chilly response from a federal appeals court. The companies want District Judge Gladys Kessler's order overturned because a 2009 law gave the Food and Drug Administration authority over the industry, including power to require graphic cigarette warnings. In a Justice Department lawsuit, Kessler ruled in 2006 that America's largest cigarette makers concealed the dangers of smoking for decades.

Revolution in Smoking Cigarettes

We are on the brink of a revolution in smoking which aims to eradicate the tax free Viceroy cigarette. Companies, including some of the biggest names in tobacco, are poised to launch a generation of devices that mimic the experience of smoking without the lethal effects. One, being developed by a 29-year-old Oxford graduate, has attracted the attention of BAT, one of the world's largest tobacco companies, which has bought the rights to market it. A profusion of electronic and other devices has appeared in the past year, thanks to a legal loophole which allows them to be sold freely so long as they do not make any health claim . An estimated 10 million "e-cigarettes", which are shaped to look like the real thing and simulate smoking by heating nicotine to produce an inhaled mist, have been sold worldwide.