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Tobacco tax hike to cut smoking rates
AUSTRALIAN smokers are some of the hardest hit in last night's Federal Budget announcement, with a consistent tax increase set to cut smoking rates.
There will be a series of 12.5% increases in excise for each of the next four years, that will mean by 2020 a pack of cigarettes would cost about $40.
The number of smokers in Australia has dwindled in recent decades, from about a quarter in the early 1990s to closer to 13% now, partly due to previous tobacco excise increases, and public health measures like banning smoking in public areas and plain packaging laws.
