Tax take falls after taxes raised

The Dutch treasury’s take from tobacco sales has fallen below official forecasts, partly at least because smokers are going abroad to buy their cigarettes, according to a DutchNews.nl story citing a Financieele Dagblad report from Thursday.

Tobacco industry figures indicate that Dutch consumers are increasingly buying their cigarettes and fine-cut tobacco in Belgium and Germany where they are cheaper.

The industry says turnover in the tobacco sector has fallen by almost 25 percent during the past five years but that this decline is not accounted for by the number of people who have stopped smoking.

Last year, the finance ministry had estimated tobacco taxes would bring in an extra €80m after prices went up on January 1.

However, the amount raised by the treasury from tobacco remained at about €2.44bn, which is below the €2.5bn raised in 2012.

Tobacco taxes are due to go up again next month and bring in, according to finance ministry figures, an extra €100m for the treasury.