Editorial: Tax take on tobacco no petty sum

The government hopes to be smokefree by 2025, says Roger Moroney. Photo / File

The government wants to create a smokefree environment by 2025. Not the smoke from barbecues and fireplaces, smoke from tobacco.

It is a lofty ambition, and a very challenging one given that the Government's excise tax take on tobacco is not exactly modest. In 2011 the tax revenue for the Government was $801.2 million ... not a bad little earner.

It will be argued of course that the loss of such revenue would be offset to a degree by the reduction in health spending in matters relating to ailments and illnesses related to inhaling tobacco smoke.

But at the end of the day, $801.2 million is not a petty sum.

The first steps of a serious assault on hauling back smoking came when legislation was introduced in December 2004 banning smoking from all indoor bars and restaurants. New Zealand was only the third country to introduce such a blanket ban - and while there were initial grumbles from the "regulars" it was accepted and is now taken as read. Airlines and workplaces banned smoking, with smokers heading for street corners or carparks at "smoko" time for the fix.

And it is a fix as tobacco is addictive. I have never smoked simply because I couldn't see the point, and the only thing I wanted going into my lungs was air. There are now moves afoot to ban cigarette sales in dairies and anywhere near schools, to stem luring in the young and curious.

The tobacco industry is used to the whole anti-smoking package now, and the latest proposals have been met with scorn from some sectors of the retail industry.

An estimated 5000 people a year die prematurely through smoking, but there is a solution - a complete and total immediate ban. But the tax take is around $800 million and the cost of smoking to the health budget is around $250 million. Yep, do the sums.