The situation had not occurred since 2007: the revenues from the tobacco market which enter the social security budget will drop this year. A decrease that the Health Insurance considers substantial: in 2011, it earned 13 billion euros in taxes on the cigarette market and it now estimates the tobacco industry’s revenues at 10.98 billion euros. which should enter its coffers in 2013.
This drop is certainly due to the drop in the number of smokers but also, and above all, to the growing electronic cigarette market, because the latter is (for the moment) not taxed at the same level as normal cigarettes. The more the electronic cigarette gains ground on that of the cigarette, the more the inflows of money in the coffers of the security decrease.
But, in the long term, this reduction in taxes could be offset by a lower cost on the health side since, according to doctors, the benefit of e-cigarettes on health is very real: the electronic cigarette would indeed be more effective than the patch for stop smoking.
Recall that, last week, the European Parliament gave its agreement so that the e-cigarette is not considered as a medicine and that it can continue to be sold in specialty shops.
