In 2019 Italian smokers will have to deal with a new increase in the price of cigarettes. Indeed, on closer inspection there will be two increases on excise duties.
The first is the one inserted by the government in the budget law to raise cash. The additional revenue will not be exactly stellar: the maneuver speaks of 132,6 million starting next year. On the pockets of consumers, on the other hand, the burden risks being felt in a much more significant way. The extent of the burden, in fact, will be the traditional one: 10 cents extra per pack.
To this first increase, a second will be added by March XNUMX - this time for 5 cents – linked to a technical mechanism and not to a political choice: the indexation of the minimum tax burden for medium-high price ranges. This increase was not introduced to raise cash, but to solve a problem with the current rules on tobacco taxation and avoid a possible loss of revenue.
However, it is not yet said that this will have negative consequences for the wallets of smokers. The financial administration itself, in fact, hypothesizes that the increase in cigarettes can be absorbed directly by the producers. But in the event of further intervention in Parliament, the rise in prices would directly affect consumers.
The maneuver also includes a new squeeze on games, with an increase in the single tax levy (Preu) on new slots and video lotteries, which will guarantee greater revenue of 239,1 million in 2019. The intervention will also have consequences for players, because it will bring with it a reduction in the payout, i.e. of the sums disbursed by the machines as winnings.
