Call for lower excise taxes

The New Zealand member of parliament and ACT party leader David Seymour has called for tobacco-product excise taxes to be lowered, according to a story by Sam Carran for Newstalk ZB.

Seymour says that the doubling of such taxes during the past five years has led to an increase in crimes against retailers.

Nearly 500 such robberies committed during the past year were said to have been related to tobacco.

“People who are doing these robberies are the scum of the earth and they should all be hung, drawn and quartered or whatever the maximum is allowed under the Crimes Act as it stands,” Seymour added.