special taxes on tobacco will soon be increased to allow the coverage of some expenses included in the Budget: as happened, therefore, also at the end of last year, the price of cigarettes is destined to rise.
There is nothing specifically defined yet, given that the measure is under development, but it is the Ministry of Economy and Finance itself that clarifies the doubts: “Financing of unchanged policies (renewals of PA and healthcare contracts, international missions, Defense) is covered by new spending review measures (5% linear for ministries) and increases in excise taxes on tobacco”.
It remains to be understood what the impact will be on the cost of cigarettes: sources from the government majority, as reported The messenger, would have recorded an increase in final sales prices greater than those applied last year (therefore, more than 20 cents for cigarettes and 40/50 cents for crushed tobacco in bags). In 2025, however, the increases could be even more significant.
The intention is to at least keep unchanged, if not increase, the fund from excise taxes on tobacco: according to official statistics, the number of smokers in Italy has recently decreased sharply and progressively. If, on the one hand, we are witnessing a decrease in the volumes and market value of what we can define as “traditional cigarettes”, on the other, the greater diffusion of electronic cigarettes and processed tobacco is evident, although overall the The turnover of these companies is not particularly large.
However, it should be stressed that upward adjustment of excise duties does not automatically lead to an increase in taxes. final prices of cigarettes offered by different companies. Among the possibilities, exactly as happened at the beginning of 2023, is also that large manufacturing companies decide to play defensively and not increase some products, especially protecting emblematic ones. Even next year, for example, Camel Blue or Marlboro Gold will always be able to be sold at the usual price, and companies will “compensate for this” by charging the additional costs to lower-impact products.
The increase in excise taxes, however, is a legacy from previous governments: the years needed for a project “triennial“They were precisely 2023, 2024 and 2025. The blow is quite worrying to the associations in the sector. “Governments pass and we always see the same things, the same annual changes and never a structural change”complains the president of Assotabaccai Confesercenti, Gianfranco Labib, as reported The messenger.
“We hope that a technical table will be opened immediately with the government to reform the law that regulates tobacconists, which is stuck in 1957”he adds, “If this is not done, tobacconists run a serious risk of disappearing”. “Product costs are increasingly higher and profitability is increasingly lower, with fewer and fewer users of the service and decreasing economic margins”concludes Labib.
