Tobacco excise isn’t making Australians smoke less and should be frozen to curb black market, economists say

Taxes now account for $28 of the average $40 price for a packet, following a triple-fold excise hike in ten years from 46c to $1.40 per cigarette

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Economists say the tobacco excise rate is too high, is not lowering smoking rates and should be frozen or even radically" reduced as a way to address the soaring black market trade in cigarettes.

It comes ahead of a meeting of state and federal health ministers on Friday and after the NSW premier, Chris Minns, last week demanded the Albanese government cut the excise rate to combat an explosion in black market tobacco and an associated rise in organised crime.