A nice little earner

Tobacco users in Belgium contributed €2.373 billion in excise tax to the state’s treasury last year, according to a story by Jason Bennett for the Brussels Times citing a Sudpresse newspapers report.

Tobacco excise in 2018 was said to have been increased by €123.8 million on that of 2017, ‘after stagnating for four years’.

Border sales are thought to have played a role in the increase, partly because the price of a pack of cigarettes was increased by €1 in France in March 2018.

Tobacco excise in Belgium in 2018 accounted for about 27 percent of the treasury’s total excise income, €8.83 billion.