Rookverboden dure aangelegenheid voor overheid
Uit een berekening die een professionele accountant heeft uitgevoerd blijkt dat een algemeen rookverbod in Engeland dat zou leiden tot een vermindering van het aantal rokers met 15%, de overheid zou opzadelen met een strop van 1,7 miljard pond aan belastingopbrengsten per jaar.
Volgens een berekening van de British Medical Association zou een rookverbod echter maar 250 miljoen pond opbrengen wegens verminderde medische kosten.
A ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants could lose the Treasury an estimated £1.8 billion a year in tax.
Mike Warburton, senior tax partner at accountant Grant Thornton, has calculated the cost to the Treasury based on a predicted 15pc decline in the number of smokers.
The Government has proposed to ban smoking in restaurants and any pubs or bars which serve food, partly in an effort to save money for the NHS.
But Mr Warburton said the money saved on healthcare to smokers would be tiny in comparison to the amount the Treasury will lose each year.
John Reid, the Health Secretary, has said smoking will be banned in 90pc of pubs if Labour wins the next election. By the end of 2007, all enclosed public places and workplaces are expected to be smoke-free.
By 2008, all restaurants, as well as pubs and bars serving food, will be smoke-free environments.
Tobacco duty currently raises £8.1 billion, Mr Warburton said, citing figures from Gordon Brown’s Budget. He calculated that a 15pc fall in the number of smokers would deprive the Government of £1.2 billion in duty, £300m in VAT and £300m in corporation tax based on an estimated fall in tobacco companies’ profits.
Mr Warburton said: “The British Medical Association says that smoking-related illnesses cost the NHS £1.7 billion a year, so a 15pc reduction in smoking could save £250m, although this would take several years to feed through.”
He added: “This does explain why we’ve not had a ban before.”
