Autumn Budget 2024: Vaping tax and tobacco duty to increase

Smokers and vapers are set to pay more in Britain as Chancellor Rachel Reeves today announced a new vaping tax and an increase in tobacco duty during her Autumn Budget.

She confirmed that the government will introduce a “flat rate duty” on all vaping liquid from October 2026, while also renewing the tobacco duty escalator for the remainder of this Parliament at Retail Price Index (RPI) two per cent.

Reeves increased duty on hand rolling tobacco by 10 per cent this year and, in addition, she introduced a one off increase in tobacco duty “to maintain the incentive to give up smoking”.

The amount of tax paid on cigarettes usually increases in line with inflation each year and much of the industry was prepared for the increase seen in the Budget today.

Earlier this month, the government introduced fresh legislation to ban the sale of disposable vapes by June 2025, branding the e-cigarette products “wasteful”.

It said an estimated five million single-use vapes were littered or thrown away each week last year – almost four times as much as the previous year.

It comes as the government plans to introduce the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will gradually raise the age at which tobacco products can be bought, with the aim of stopping anyone born after 2009 from ever legally smoking in a bid to create a smoke-free UK.

Both the former Tory and the Labour government have both argued that cigarette price rises will lead to fewer than five per cent of the population being smokers by 2030, meaning the UK will be classed as “smoke free”.