SMOKERS PAY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2766, 24 August 1931, Page 8

SMOKERS PAY.

REVENUE FROM TOBACCO DUTY The Government benefited b.y more than half a million pounds last year through the indulgence of the smoking public of the Dominion (says the “Christchurch Times”). Tobacco valued at £1,348,470 was imported into the'country and 99.99 per cent, oi that amount was duitable. Added to the revenue derived from the imported tobacco grown in the Dominion and cigarettes manufactured locally from native and imported leaf. Few smokers realise that, when they buy a ninepenny packet of imported cigarettes they contribute 4Jd to the State, or that, on the purchase of a two-ounce packet of imported smoking tobacco, the levy is approximately Bkl. Imported cigarettes are assessed for fiscal purposes by weight. Most of the lines imported are estimated at 2Jlb to the thousand. The duty v'orks out at 33s 9d a thousand, tobacco and some sorts of cigarette plus a surtax of 5 per cent. z , Pipe tobaccos are charged at the rate of 5s 6d a pound, plus onetwentieth. Fine cut,tobacco for the manufacture'of cigarettes is charged at 13s 3d a pound. Many of the cigarettes smoked in New Zealand are manufactured locally. In that case/the imported leaf is usually blended with the New Zea-land-grown product. Excise duty is then charged, but the amount depends on the blending, and it is not pcssible to give approximately the amount of duty per packet.