Cutting VAT on vaping products and helping smokers admitted to hospital to quit are being suggested as ways to reduce smoking rates.
VAT on e-cigarettes should be reduced from 20% to 5% to bring them into line with sales on nicotine gum and patches, the Local Government Association (LGA) says. The LGA, which represents councils in England and Wales, says current legislation allows a 5% rate to be applied to “pharmaceutical products designed to help people stop smoking tobacco”.
It argues that there is growing evidence to suggest that using e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking. The LGA says making legal vaping products more affordable and treating them equally with other stop-smoking methods will incentivise more people to quit the habit.
