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Abstract

The profitability of the tobacco industry is now topical as the current UK government, and the main opposition Labour party, have both outlined plans for a levy on the UK tobacco industry. The basic idea is that the industry should explicitly pay more towards the costs their products impose upon society and which are currently born by all taxpayers. Implicit within this idea is that the industry is earning significant profits from which a fuller contribution could be made towards the societal costs engendered. Thus, in this report we seek to examine the current profitability of the UK market and comment upon the different possibilities that exist for such a levy since the details are not yet fixed. To that end, in section A of this report we explore the profitability of the UK tobacco market during the last five years, and then in Section B we comment upon the possibilities that exist for such a tobacco levy and how the industry might make a larger financial contribution. Finally our conclusions are presented in Section C.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherUniversity of Bath
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2015

Keywords

  • Tobacco industry
  • Profitability
  • Tobacco Levy

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