THE REAL REASON THEY WANT TO BAN E_CIGS >>>> A spokesman for ASH said this morning that by discouraging their use, “We’re really condemning people to death who might otherwise have lived.” And therein lies the problem. People are going to live longer. A lot longer. There’s already a pensions crisis in the UK, but that is only half of the issue. For the last couple of decades, around 30% of the population have been smokers. It’s remained steady thanks to careful price manipulation, allowing the government to grab the maximum tax while not putting people off completely. Smokers have been dying young for as long as smoking has been around. People who should live well into their 80s, 90s, and 100s have been reliably kicking the bucket in their 50s, 60s and 70s. Horrendous, until you consider how little they claim of their state pensions. Disastrous until you take into account the healthcare costs they didn’t need. Because old people need medical care. They break easily. The residential care home business is booming, hip replacements are at an all time high. Neuro-degenerative diseases require full-time care from a dedicated round the clock staff. It doesn’t come cheap. People living upwards of two decades longer is a cost that we, as a country, simply cannot afford. And then you have to take into account lost revenue. If all smokers convert to an electronic equivalent or quit altogether, that’s £13 billion in excise duty and VAT lost to the exchequer every year. That’s almost 1% of GDP and 2.2% of all government revenues. It’s a lot of money lost. Sure, the government can tax electronic cigarettes, but how? On complete devices? More and more people are making their own. On the nicotine-based e-juice? It’s pretty easy to import in bulk from China and mix your own at home. The only feasible answer is to restrict the types of electronic cigarettes available to pre-made disposables and ban all others. Taxation would be easy – applied at point of sale in your local off license or newsagent, and anything else would be seen as an attempt to dodge the excise duty. Either that or ban them outright.
Posted on: Sat, 03 May 2014 21:37:20 +0000
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