Tobacco Taxation, Unemployment And The Lower Paid

EDM number 650 in 1991-92, proposed by Robert Parry on 11/02/1992.

That this House notes with regret the excessive tobacco tax increases in the Chancellor's 1991 Budget which have led to at least 500 further job losses in United Kingdom tobacco manufacturing alone, mainly in areas of already high unemployment; notes the unusual nature of tobacco tax, which most burdens poorer households, some of which spend as much as 15 per cent. of their income on the purchase of tobacco products, so making tobacco the most regressive of all central Government taxes; reminds the House that in the middle of a deep recession unnecessary tax increases in 1991 for pipe tobacco after an eight year freeze hit pensioners particularly hard; and so urges the Chancellor to freeze duty on tobacco products in his 1992 Budget as a step towards protecting the remaining 13,000 United Kingdom tobacco industry jobs and easing the considerable tax burden on the poor and the elderly.

This motion has been signed by a total of 11 MPs.