After conventional cigarettes, the executive wants to tackle taxes on electronic cigarettes to boost state revenue. The price of e-liquid used by vapers could therefore increase from the start of 2025.
Between 150 and 200 million euros. This is the amount that the Barnier government hopes to raise by implementing a new tax on electronic cigarettes. “Nineteen European countries have already taxed this product for amounts ranging from 10 cents per milliliter in Czechia to 1.04 euros per milliliter for certain liquids in Switzerland,” declared MP Charles de Courson, MP Les Centristes – Le Nouveau Centre, at the origin of the proposed amendment to the 2025 draft budget.
The latter hopes to put an end to the “French exception”, in a context where the government is looking for savings to restore public finances and reduce the deficit to 5% of GDP in 2025. If this proposal is adopted, smokers of electronic cigarettes could see the price of the e-liquid for their device increase from the start of 2025.
A budget that would increase from 90 to 180 euros
A tax of 15 cents per milliliter could be applied, as provided for in the amendment. A 10 ml bottle of nicotine or non-nicotine e-liquid would therefore cost around 1.5 euros more.
“This amendment, if adopted, risks compromising efforts to reduce smoking in France, in particular for smokers with modest incomes,” laments the vaping association La Vape du Cœur to RMC Conso.
In fact, consumers’ annual budget dedicated to vaping liquid could increase from 90 to 180 euros, based on five to ten bottles per month. An increase which could discourage the most modest smokers. “Taxing these products would amount to increasing financial obstacles for those who wish to quit smoking, particularly people with modest incomes who, according to statistics, smoke more than the average,” adds the association.
Preserving access to alternatives
La Vape du Cœur also fears a compromise of “progress made in the fight against smoking”. As a reminder, tobacco still remains the leading cause of avoidable mortality in France, with 75,000 deaths per year.
“Vaping, as a risk reduction tool, should be encouraged, and not penalized by tax measures that make it less accessible,” says the association.
For its part, the French Vape Industry denounces taxation on “the most effective and therefore the most popular helping tool among smokers to quit”. This opinion is shared by some tobacco specialists, such as Marion Adler, doctor at the Antoine Béclère Hospital in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine), invited to the France Inter microphone on October 22. “Taxing what helps smokers quit smoking will make them return to smoking,” she warned.
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