The price of a pack of cigarettes will have to increase significantly in 2025. The Senate has, in fact, decided to increase tobacco taxes during the examination of the Social Security financing law (PLFSS) for 2025. The price of a packet of cigarettes will now increase to 12.70 euros on average next year.
During the session on Thursday, November 21 to examine the Social Security budget, senators decided to increase taxes on tobacco. They thus went further than the proposal of the Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq. The packet of cigarettes will now increase to 12.70 euros on average in 2025, or 40 cents more than planned in the national plan to combat smoking presented barely a year ago.
“If we keep changing plans, it seems a little complicated to me,” said the minister. The measure, supposed to bring in 200 million euros from next year while maintaining the target of a package at 13 euros in 2027, was largely validated by 241 votes to 2. Note that during this vote, the left s is abstained. This political movement, for its part, defended a package of 16 euros within two years.
Increase in tobacco taxes
Concerning “pouches”, these sachets of nicotine in gums or beads to put in the mouth, Geneviève Darrieussecq had indicated that she “prefers to ban (them) than to tax (them). However, the senators did not agree with the minister and did not vote for the requested ban. Concerning alcohol and food, the senators opposed all the amendments. However, they voted for a tax on advertisements for alcoholic beverages in Reunion against the advice of the minister.
Remember that according to Public Health France researchers, in 2023, one in three people (aged between 18 and 75) admitted to smoking cigarettes on a regular or exceptional basis. The report on the issue, published on November 16, shows that despite the slight decline observed in recent years, smoking is still as present in French society.
Tobacco causes 75,000 deaths per year in France. To encourage smokers to stop this harmful habit, the government has decided to take a radical measure. By 2027, a pack of 20 cigarettes should cost 13 euros. Moreover, since the start of the year, several cigarette brands have already increased the prices of their products.
