Turkey has raised the special consumption tax on cigarettes by 16.7 percent to 1.4 lira (US$ 1.01) per packet of 20.
Tax rates on cigarettes had been unchanged since July 2005 despite demands by the finance ministry that the tax be raised in line with the inflation rate.
Some government officials had resisted the tax hike saying this could hurt plans to privatise state tobacco firm Tekel. A planned sale of Tekel has been put off until the company – which has lost large chunks of Turkey's big cigarette market since 2001 – increases its market share. (pi)
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