Australia: Beer drinkers and smokers to pay more from midnight tonight

Beer drinkers and smokers will be slugged with higher taxes from midnight tonight as an excise increase come into force, 7News announced January 31.

The twice yearly excise will add 50c to a packet of cigarettes and 10c to the average beer.

John Thorpe from the Australian Hotels' Association said the tax hike is unfair.
"It's a tax on a tax," he said. "It's basically government double dipping."

The Federal Government's tax take from alcohol and cigarettes will rise by $140 million to $7 billion dollars a year.

02 February, 2007