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Newsflash: Get Your Cigs Quick!
The Government is debating moving into urgency in order to raise the price of a packet of cigarettes by more than $1 - from tonight.
The measure will take effect from midnight tonight and increase the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes from $7.20 to close to over $8 and possibly up to $8.50.
Announcing the measure the government says it expects the measure to increase the cost of cigarettes by 14% and to reduce the amount of smoking by 7%.
The new tax will raise $20 million over the rest of the financial year to June 30th and $110 million next financial year.
Alastair Thompson
Scoop Publisher
Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.
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