A document has come to light (here) which shows early plans are being made to add excise duty - otherwise known as sin taxes - to e-cigs.
(a) Do you experience problems in your Member State because E-cigarettes and other (new) nicotine containing products are currently not excisable products?
(b) What are your impressions of the development and size of the market of E-cigarettes and other (new) nicotine containing products? Are there any signs of substitution of the regular tobacco products?
(c) What do you think of the option to adjust the scope of excisable products by including a nicotine-based category?In other words, so many people are switching from tobacco to vaping, member states are suffering a drop in income. This, apparently, is deemed to be causing "problems".
Incredible, isn't it? The EU has, for decades, liberally pissed away our cash on nagging, cajoling, hectoring, intervening, regulating, legislating and bullying smokers to quit. But now that many have done exactly that with e-cigs, it's cocking up member state budgets so screw health, it's now all about revenue raising.
Bates fisks their moronic plan into the middle of next week, so do go have a read.
On a personal note, though, thank you to e-cigs for yet again proving the Puddlecote motto correct ... it's never been about health.
7 comments:
We knew it would come to this. The fight will be won! Thanks for the update.
(c) What do you think of the option to adjust the scope of excisable products by including a nicotine-based category?
That should be interesting. So how much will Nicorette Gum and Patches be taxed? And what about aubergines? Will they be taxed by weight?
What an incredible surprise!!!! I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that they actually wanted to TAX us, just punish us for being filthy, smelly, suicidal addicts. I really, really thought that they were altruistically concerned about my and the public HEALTH! I am so glad I stopped smoking - and paying sin taxes. Should I not have done that? Having caused the destruction of the NHS by my constant need for treatment of smoking-related disease (I once had an in-growing toe-nail), the last thing I want is to bankrupt the government, cause a fiscal crisis, or destroy the Eurozone by avoiding tobacco duty. Of course, I see it now as my duty to make up the shortfall in funding for the Tobacco Control industry by coughing up (not!) my Nicotine EXcise Tax - tbc the NEXT source of morality charges. OVER MY DEAD BODY!
OT
DP, you might recall a recent thread looking at the undue influence of [antismoking] Healthway (through sponsorship) on WA Opera. The WA Opera ditched plans to perform Carmen because the storyline has it
set in a cigar factory and contains depictions of smoking.
http://dickpuddlecote.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/mike-daube-and-his-funding-merry-go.html
Well, Healthway has made the headlines again:
WA anti-smoking agency cashed in on $220,000 worth of perks
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/wa-anti-smoking-agency-cashed-in-on-220000-worth-of-perks/story-e6frg6nf-1227225886146
Why isn't that surprising?
"It has never been about health"
"Prohibition" in the USA around 1920, which was primarily about booze but also included tobacco, was based upon 'ethics' (of a religious nature). Booze companies enticed family men to indulge, and get drunk and then go home and beat up their wives and children - or at least spend the family money on booze and tobacco and prostitutes.
The idea of 'Health' has become mystical. Churches, such as the C of E, have allowed themselves to drawn into an ABSOLUTE understanding of what constitutes HEALTH. That understanding permits 'the elite' to be fat, but denies fatness to the masses. For the masses, who cannot afford to be fat, fatness is a sin; but, for the wealthy, fatness is acceptable and even, possibly, a virtue, since 'they are not as other men'. A rotund Emperor displays the generosity of the Earth.
Bla, bla.
What we have been seeing is a 'one size fits all' WHO programme. However, it is not true that the extent of fatties in the USA must dictate the conditions in China, India and Africa.
"Totalitarianism" is, by definition, useless on a world-wide basis.
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Where are the thinkers who can burst the bubble of totalitarianism?
It is possible to accuse Cameron, Clegg and Miliband of being totalitarians. Certainly, the plan to bans smoking in cars 'when kids are present' is dictatorial since it does not allow for the simple expedient of opening a window. Also, of course, PP is just a vindictive pleasure for the Zealots. And thus we might ask what virtues Cameron, Clegg and Miliband possess. I suspect that the possess no virtues at all. None. They have no principles at all. None.
They are hateful.
<"That understanding permits 'the elite' to be fat, but denies fatness to the masses. For the masses, who cannot afford to be fat, fatness is a sin; but, for the wealthy, fatness is acceptable and even, possibly, a virtue, since 'they are not as other men'.">
Thank you for a succinct explanation.
This is exactly what is happening today. This is a photo of the current treasurer and his chief finance minister, the day before the slugged the poor and vulnerable with their "austerity" budget. Which included funding for anti-smoking zealot groups.
[IMG]http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2014/05/09/1226912/413812-f3a8cafc-d77a-11e3-a788-f9855f7e436a.jpg[/IMG]
Apparently, according to Australia's richest woman, poor people should just work harder, and not spend their money on beer and smokes, and should be working for $2 a day like they do in Africa.
[IMG]https://scontent-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/v/t1.0-9/644597_360393750706286_835691922_n.jpg?oh=4f7cba3b4c2ae1aadf1f00757bd2c358&oe=554A73E6[/IMG]
Don't forget, Junican, that apparently, even with the car window open the inside gets smokier than pubs full of smokers used to! Or so claimed ASH!!
Anyway, it will no doubt come to be a total ban in ALL vehicles as it is nigh on impossible to tell if a driver has a child in the car! On top of that, who is going to police it? Not the police, they don't seem to police roads any more, that is down to speed cameras and the motorways have now been passed to VOSA and the HATO's!
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