Report favors zero e-cig excise

Excise taxes should be set at zero for electronic cigarettes and other less risky alternatives to combustible cigarettes, according a story by Billy Bambrough citing a report by the UK’s Institute of Economic Affairs.

The report argues that setting the tax on electronic cigarettes lower than that on traditional cigarettes would improve public health and consumer welfare.

The EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive has laid out plans to bring electronic-cigarette excise taxes in line with those of tobacco cigarettes. Under the present excise regime, duty must make up at least 57 percent of the retail price of a pack of cigarettes.

The report’s author, economist Carl Philips, slammed policy makers for refusing to take into account “simple economics” when making decisions.

“Public health people are notoriously economically illiterate,” he was quoted as saying. Most of the nonsense in the policy discussion, on all sides, stems from ignoring economics.

“Just because a choice has health implications does not eliminate the value of economic analysis. The concept of addiction only makes sense in the context of economics, so it is obviously not a reason for ignoring economic science.”