IBVTA Questions Tax Rise
It is questionable to increase the cost of vaping, according to The Independent British Vape Trade Association’s Marcus Saxton, responding to the Chancellor’s budget announcement
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by Dave Cross
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It is questionable to increase the cost of vaping, according to The Independent British Vape Trade Association’s Marcus Saxton, responding to the Chancellor’s budget announcement. The independent trade association for the UK vaping industry reiterated its concerns of unintended consequences rising from making vaping far more expensive – and therefore less attractive to smokers.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced during the Budget speech that the UK will see a flat-rate tax applied to all eliquid bottles from the 1st October 2026, adding £2.20 to every 10ml of liquid – whether it contains nicotine or not.
The Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) says this would mean the cost of the products used by many thousands of vapers including those on lower incomes, 10ml refill bottles, will increase by £2.20 +VAT and the rate of a 2ml prefilled pod will increase by £0.44+VAT.
“The previous Government had announced a tiered structure, meaning a higher rate of excise would have been applied to the products which smokers need most to make a successful switch, and had been warned against by public health academics and organisations, including Smoking on Action and Health (ASH),” The Independent British Vape Trade Association says.
What offers a very small light in a very dark tunnel is that the Government announced that it will be conducting a consultation looking at the excise charge. It is asking for opinions on the compliance measures, “which sets out proposals for vaping duty stamps and seeks views on options to limit illicit production of vaping liquids by placing controls on the supply chain of nicotine. The consultation will run until 11th December 2024.”
Welcoming the change of policy from the previous government’s tiered proposed structure, IBVTA Chair, Marcus Saxton, said: “The government has already proposed regulation that will ban single use products, which despite helping many adult smokers access vaping, have via irresponsible retailers been disproportionately accessible to children.
“It would seem a little questionable then to increase the cost of vaping, especially given there are still around six million adult smokers for who you’re trying to give every opportunity to make the transition to less harmful products.
“There’s also the potential negative effect of an excise on public services utilising vapes within their smoking cessation services. The IBVTA do not believe that any excise tax should be applied to products supplied via these services.
“The IBVTA will continue working constructively with HMRC to make sure these proposals are meaningfully enforceable and don’t have unintended consequences.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
