The Vaping Products Duty, which will add £2.20 to every vape refill when it comes into force on October 1, is likely to result in vapers taking smoking back up again, a survey has found.
Some 3,500 adults were polled by the UK Vaping Industry Association trade body, with around half saying they would either return to smoking or buy black-market vape products once the new tax is applied. A similar proportion was totally unaware the duty was being introduced.
The tax adds £2.20 to every 10ml of e-liquid, or £2.64 after VAT, meaning some e-liquid refill bottles will more than double in price, with the cost of pods rising by around a quarter.
A report commissioned by online retailer Vape Club, meanwhile, estimates that 946,000 vapers and ‘dual users’ (who both smoke and vape) could switch to smoking only, buying an additional 1.5bn cigarettes a year, bringing an additional £306.6m in healthcare and productivity costs.
The vape UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has called for an urgent meeting with the Treasury, HMRC and the Department of Health and Social Care to address its concerns.
UKVIA director general John Dunne says that the industry supports legislation to stop young people from buying vapes and is not “flatly opposed to a duty increase”, but warns the £2.20 tax is “nothing short of a public health timebomb”.
Dan Marchant, director of Vape Club comments: “We know we are unlikely to see the duty disappear altogether, but the cost of getting this wrong is simply too high to bear, both for the NHS and for people across the country who rely on vaping to stay away from cigarettes.”
