Cigarette prices to jump by almost 7% amid growing concern about Australia’s booming black market

Excise on a pack of 20 cigarettes will rise to $29.97 on 1 September, according to the ATO. Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian

A scheduled rise in the tobacco excise means cigarette prices in Australia, already the highest in the developed world, will jump by nearly 7% on Monday.

The increase comes amid growing criticisms of the price-led anti-smoking policy, which has triggered an explosion in black market tobacco sales and an associated jump in violent crime.