Taxes now account for $28 of the average $40 price for a packet, following a triple-fold excise hike in ten years from 46c to $1.40 per cigaretteGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastEconomists say the tobacco excise rate is too high, is not lowering smoking rates and should be frozen or even “radically” reduced as a way to address the soaring black market trade in cigarettes.It comes ahead of a meeting of state and federal health ministers on Friday and after the NSW premier, Chris Minns, last week demanded the Albanese government cut the excise rate to combat an explosion in black market tobacco and an associated rise in organised crime. Continue reading...