Tobacco taxation
excise
Tobacco taxation is the excise tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Tobacco taxation is the most effective tobacco control measure. It is used by many governments to generate revenue and to reduce tobacco consumption. On average, a 10 % price increase reduces cigarette consumption by 4 % to 5 %.
Its revenue can contribute to the general government budget and/or be used to cover health costs of tobacco smoking. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum 75 % tax share of the retail price of tobacco, as a way of deterring cancer, cardiovascular diseases and other negative health outcomes.
Impact
Substantial scientific evidence confirms that higher cigarette prices result in lower overall cigarette consumption (elasticity). Most studies indicate that a 10 % price increase reduces cigarette consumption by 4 % in developed countries and 5 % in developing countries. Youth, minorities, and low-income smokers are two to three times more likely to quit or smoke less than other smokers in response to price increases.
In 2016, the World Health Organization reported that increases in the cost of and taxes on tobacco products are "the single most consistently effective tool for reducing tobacco use".
The public source identifies “Tobacco taxation” as excise. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Tobacco, taxation and excise.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2342359. The Library of Congress control number is sh85135724. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tobacco taxation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.