Finnish Government Moves to Tax E-Cigarettes

Source from:  YLE News‎ 07/21/2016

The Finnish government is planning a new tobacco tax that will extend to include electronic cigarettes. A decision regarding taxation of e-cigarettes will be decided upon in autumn budget process meetings.

The new taxation level would be 30 cents per millilitre of liquid for re-filling e-cigarettes.

If the proposal steps into effect in Finland, the cost of cheap e-cigarette liquids would rise - significantly.

"If this proposed three euro tax level is approved, the least expensive category of prices would double," says Merja Sandell,government counsellor with the Ministry of Finance.

Tax would extend to nicotine-free liquids

Until now, only nicotine-free electronic cigarette liquids have been sold in Finland. But by the end of the year it is likely that e-cigarette liquids containing nicotine would also be sold.

E-cigarettes would also be taxed.

"The idea is that the tax would step into effect at the same time as the new products legally enter the marketplace. This is an issue of extending the tobacco tax to all of these products," says Sandell.

As state coffers are expected to receive only a few million euros from this new tax, the main goal is to curb e-cigarette usage. Enditem