Winston Peters says tobacco excise tax leads to killings and assaults in dairies According to Interim Prime Minister Winston Peters

A KPMG report commissioned by Imperial Tobacco NZ revealed that the government had lost up to $ 182 million of excise duty on the 9 percent of the tobacco tax. illegally obtained in 2017.

Imperial Tobacco said that eight years of "aggressive" excise duty increases have contributed to illicit tobacco consumption.

"The attractiveness of the illicit market will continue to increase over the next two years. Imperial Tobacco New Zealand's General Manager, Sam Abbott, said," Of course, there was a link between excise tax and illicit tobacco, but went even further, linking it to attacks on shop workers.

"This leads to people being murdered and assaulted in our dairies."

But Peters, speaking to reporters during his The weekly press conference of the Cabinet announced that nearly $ 2 billion of excise duties on tobacco were levied, but that about 3 percent of that amount was intended to minimize smoking

"The money is not going for the purpose for which it is collected.

Peters hinted that there might be some changes, but said that everything could not be done at the same time.

"We also have the situation where we will have to readjust taxes. At the same time, we can not do all of them at the same time.

A goal to make New Zealand smoke-free by 2025 evaporated because, although the smoking rate has decreased, it remains stubbornly high among some groups, including young people. Maori.