Will the price of tobacco increase faster than expected in 2025? On Thursday, November 21, senators adopted an amendment to the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) proposing to increase taxation on cigarette packets by a very large majority (241 votes for and 2 against), reports Capital . Will this vote be enough to push the government to reverse course?
The government wants to stick to the planned trajectory
Indeed, on October 17, the Minister of Budget and Public Accounts, Laurent Saint-Martin, ruled out the possibility of such a measure. He assured that there would be no additional increase in tobacco prices in 2025, and that indexation to inflation would be “content”.
“Excessively large differences (in prices) with our European neighbors can lead to a weakening of flow rates, particularly those installed in border areas, and to the persistence of an excessively large parallel market”he explained at the annual congress of the Confederation of tobacconists, according to comments reported by AFP.
A pack of cigarettes for €12.70 from 2025?
If the planned tariff trajectory is maintained, the price of the package should reach €12.30 in 2025 and €12.60 in 2027. The amendment proposes to accelerate the pace with a tariff of €12.70 from 2025 which would remain unchanged in 2027. In other words, the package would approach from next year the price which should be reached in 2027 without an increase in taxation. But the price would remain lower than the objective set in the national plan to combat tobacco 2023-2027 which provides for a package of €13 in 2027.
This measure would allow the State, faced with a worrying public debt, to recover 150 million euros in additional revenue. But its implementation is far from assured. To do this, it must be retained in the final version of the bill.
