On 1 April 2022, the tobacco tax in Austria will rise and with it the price of cigarettes, reports Tiroler Tageszeitung.

JTI (Austria Tabak, Tobaccoland) confirmed on 18 March an increase of EUR 0.20 per pack. The brand Benson and Hedges Gold will even become EUR 0.50 more expensive per pack. According to reports, British American Tobacco Austria (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco will also increase their prices, although no one wanted to confirm this officially.
In the previous year, around EUR 2.1 billion flowed into the state budget from tobacco tax – including VAT, it was even EUR 2.7 billion. In 2020, it was still EUR 2.6 billion without VAT, the report said. Hannes Hofer, managing director of the monopoly administration, estimates that sales will "return to pre-COVID levels" in 2022.
As things stand, 21 per cent of Austrians smoke daily. Of every pack of cigarettes sold in Austria, the state receives about 77 per cent of the sales price in the form of tax, the rest goes to the manufacturers, wholesalers and tobacconists. On average, a pack costs EUR 5.34 last year. Cigarette prices have been rising continuously for years.