Year | 2009 | 2010 | |
---|---|---|---|
(A) | Cigarette duties (HK$, rounded up in thousand) | $2 962 847 000 | $3 354 551 000 |
(B) | Duty on each cigarette (HK$) | $0.804 | $1.206 |
(C) | Number of cigarettes taxed (A/B) | 3 685 133 085 | 2 781 551 410 |
(D) | Market share of smuggled cigarettes (%) | 11 | 15 |
(E) | Total cigarettes (C×1/(1−D)) | 4 140 598 972 | 3 272 413 424 |
(F) | Number of smuggled cigarettes (E−C) | 455 465 887 | 490 862 014 |
The tax duty and retailed price adjusted immediately when the financial secretary announced the tax rise instead of at the beginning of the fiscal year on 1 April, or the calendar year.7 Euromonitor provides different estimates of illicit cigarettes; see http://www.euromonitor.com/tobacco-in-hong-kong-china/report. However the same calculations based on Euromonitor data lead to the same conclusion that total cigarettes consumed decreased after tax was increased in 2010.