(Budget 2024-25) Cigarette price to hike over HK$90 per pack

Finance minister Paul Chan Mo-po announced on Wednesday that the duty on cigarettes will be increased by 80 Hong Kong cents per stick, meaning a pack of 20 cigarettes will now cost smokers over HK$90. 

Duty on other tobacco products will be increased by the same proportion and the rate of increase is similar to that of last year, Chan added. 

Currently, a pack of cigarettes is priced at HK$78, after a 25.8 percent increase from HK$62 last year. 

With each cigarette costing 80 HK cents more, the latest price for a pack is now estimated at HK$94. 

“We expect that the proportion of tobacco duty in the retail price of cigarettes will rise to about 70 percent, gradually approaching the 75 percent level recommended by the World Health Organization,” Chan said. 

Chan believes this will be a greater incentive for the public to quit smoking and said the government will continue to step up enforcement against illicit cigarette trading and strengthen smoking cessation services, publicity and education. 

The Coalition on Tobacco Affairs expressed regret over the government's further increase of tobacco tax  without having announced how last year’s price hike impacted the prevalence of smoking. 

The coalition said the 31.5 percent increase imposed last year had exacerbated illicit cigarette activities with customs seizing a record-high 650 million cigarettes in 2023, more than 12-fold compared to the figure in 2019. 

“This indicates how syndicates take advantage of Hong Kong’s high tobacco tax policy to control the sale of illicit cigarettes with the aim to provide funding to other criminal activities,” the coalition said. 

The government has not yet disclosed any data to prove how the price hike can effectively help lower the city’s smoking prevalence, it added. 

The coalition urged the government to analyze the impact of previous duty increases and to avoid adopting any aggressive financial policies that would cause low-income citizens to be disproportionately impacted. 

It suggested that the government introduces a balanced and appropriate tobacco duty framework after full consultation with all stakeholders of the tobacco industry and gather sufficient evidence.