Cigarette Sales Volume Drop Due to Reduced Number of Smokers
Published on November 25th, 2011 03:37
Sales of tobacco products have fallen again, with experts expecting an increase in smuggling and lower smoking rate. Estimates from profit demonstrated that excise was paid on more than 4.1 billion cigarettes in Ireland last year, lower by about 10% from a previous year.
Volumes of sales have been on an on-going falling trend within the past five years. However, increases in duty of cigarettes have guaranteed that the profit gained for the Court of Exchequer is on a par with five years ago at €1.1bn.
Probably one sphere that faced a raise in demand in recent years is rolling tobacco, sales volumes of which have risen during the recession. It is often considered more highly profitable than cigarettes, although anti-smoking activists state that it is similar in price per gram to cigarettes.
The use of rolling tobacco has increased by approximately 60 pc between 2008 and 2009 from 128 tonnes to almost 220 tonnes. While there was a slight decrease in use last year, sale are still increasing at record high with excise paid on 215 tonnes. “While high prices really help some people to quit their habit, it is more likely to reduce the number of smokers. Cigarettes are not so affordable now, so people are smoking fewer,” Professor Luke Clancy, director general of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society, declared in an interview.
Mr. Clancy declared that emigration of young people aged between 20 and 40 years, was also a significant factor, the same as was the departure of many European workers who were chain smokers. He underlined that there was no evidence that sales decreased due to a raise in smuggling and that the biggest loss to state was caused from people buying smokes elsewhere in Europe and legally bringing them to Ireland. “According to our estimates, 14pc of cigarettes lighted up in Ireland are bought in other EU states. As about smuggled smokes, they accounted for between 2pc and 4pc. A person ca be paying tax at home and still paying €3 or €4 for a package of cigarettes and then bring them to Ireland where they can smoke them or sell to others,” he said. “People do not have enough money and if they have an option to save some amount they will do that,” stated spokesman William Hanley.
“Illicit cigarettes are not considered as something that is affecting anyone.” However, he stated that a current survey of members of his group, conducted in the 12 months to last October, revealed that 700 retail workers were dismissed as a direct result of the decrease in cigarette sales.
