Government and Tobacco Company Continue to be in Conflict
Published on June 22, 2009 4:31 AM
For smokers, cigarettes price especially high price is a very important problem. But cigarette prices could fall if the European Commission wins its action against Ireland in the European Court of Justice.
At this meeting, the commission gave to Ireland the right to set minimum and maximum prices for tobacco products. The EU allows manufacturers and importers of tobacco products to set maximum prices for their products.
But in Ireland was approved a new legislation which banned the sale of cigarettes at less than 3 percent lower than the average price.
Manufacturers and importers may also not charge prices more than 3 percent above that average, effectively setting a maximum price for cigarettes.
The Irish government disputed that minimum prices are necessary to protect people’s health by ensuring that tobacco products are not excessively cheap, and said that the directory refers only to the setting of maximum prices, not minimum prices.
The commission has asked the court to proclaim that, by taxing minimum and maximum cigarette prices, Ireland has breached its obligations under the 1995 directive.
It also complains that the Irish government is in brake of Article 10 of the European Community Treaty for failing to provide information on the Irish legislation, despite repeated requests to do so.
The similar cases brought by the commission against France and Austria will be heard soon. Statistics show that the Revenue Commissioners collected €1.17 billion in excise duties on tobacco last year, down slightly from €1.19 billion in 2007.
The illusion that cigarette price increases will greatly reduce the number of smokers is based on the precondition that this policy will curb smoking. If not, the raised tobacco prices can only hurt poor smokers more.
Smoking is also a citizen's right. So it's unfair to pick out the poor of cigarettes by making tobacco unaffordable.
Therefore, raising cigarette prices is only one way, and there must be strict anti-smoking laws and regulations and help for smokers who want to kick the habit. It is inadmissible if the government only raises cigarette prices but does not implement other measures, because tobacco is addictive and therefore a kind of drug. So it stands to reason that addicts will not give up their fix just because of higher prices.
