Accredited official statistics

Tobacco statistics commentary April 2024

Updated 31 May 2024

1. Headline statistics

The latest headlines for Tobacco Duty statistics are:

• total tobacco receipts for the last complete financial year, 2023 to 2024, were £8,804 million, which is £1,199 million (12%) lower than the previous financial year

• this decline was driven by a reduction in receipts for both cigarettes (which fell by 14%) and hand rolling tobacco (which fell by 5%)

• hand rolling tobacco clearances fell by 21%. This is the largest year-on-year fall of hand rolling tobacco clearances since the start of the data included in this publication

• hand rolling tobacco clearances fell by 21%. This is the largest year-on-year fall of hand rolling tobacco clearances in the publication

• partly offsetting the impact of falls in clearances on receipts, duties on cigarettes increased by RPI+2% and duties on hand rolling tobacco increased by RPI+12% in November 2023

• cigarette receipts comprise the largest percentage of tobacco receipts, though this proportion has generally decreased over the previous 10 financial years

• hand rolling tobacco (HRT) receipts have gradually risen to 24% of total tobacco receipts in financial year 2023 to 24, from 11% of total tobacco receipts in the same period 10 years ago

2. About this release

This publication provides National Statistics on Tobacco Duty, which covers duty on cigarettes, cigars, hand rolling tobacco, and other types of tobacco such as pipe and chewing tobacco. National Statistics are accredited official statistics.

The statistics in this release are based on data from recent and historic trader returns up to April 2024. Detailed statistics on clearances and receipts are provided in the accompanying tables.

In practice, Tobacco Duty is paid under duty deferment arrangements, whereby liability accrued during one calendar month is paid in duty to HMRC the following month. Therefore, the monthly receipts statistics covered in this publication relate to tobacco products cleared in the previous month.

3. Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Impacts from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and public health measures in response are visible within changing trends to receipts collected for Tobacco Duty since April 2020. Go to Coronavirus (COVID-19) for the latest coronavirus information and guidance.

4. Tobacco Duty

Tobacco Duty is a tax payable on tobacco products manufactured in the UK or imported into the UK.

Manufacturers must make a return to HMRC on any day when tobacco products are released onto the UK market unless the manufacturer has an agreement with HMRC to defer duty, in which case a return can be made on a monthly basis.

Changes to Tobacco Products Duty are announced in the fiscal announcement each year. Clearances are usually high in months immediately preceding the fiscal announcement due to tobacco manufacturers forestalling against duty increases.

Further information can be accessed at Tobacco Products Duty and a statistical background is available in the accompanying Tobacco statistics background and references document. Current Tobacco Duty rates can be accessed at Tobacco Products Duty rates.

5. Monthly total tobacco receipts

Monthly total tobacco cash receipts are calculated by summing the receipts from a variety of different cigarette types and other tobacco products. This, as well as substantial changes to rates of duty across all tobacco products and forestalling prior to government budgets or the tobacco manufacturers’ own price rises, mean that monthly total receipts have been volatile over the last few years.

Figure 1: Total monthly tobacco cash receipts for the current and previous 2 financial years

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 1 go to Tobacco statistics tables (April 2024)

Figure 1 demonstrates several trends for total Tobacco Duty receipts:

• total tobacco receipts for the latest financial year quarter (January 2024 to March 2024) is £2,245 million, which is £98 million (5%) higher than the same period in the previous financial year

• receipts were high in April 2022 and this can be attributed to timing effects in March 2022 tobacco clearances, as seen in April 2021 and April 2020

6. Tobacco receipts by product type

Figure 2: Total tobacco receipts for the last 10 financial years split by cigarettes, HRT, cigars and other

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 2 go to Tobacco statistics tables (April 2024)

Figure 2 demonstrates several trends for total tobacco receipts by product type:

• total tobacco receipts for all products remained fairly stable until the financial year ending 2016

• since the financial year ending 2016, tobacco receipts fell slightly and have since reached the highest total in the financial year ending 2022

• cigarettes peaked in the financial year ending 2014 and have since shown a modest downward trend

• cigar receipts showed a very slight downward trend until the financial year ending 2020, when it increased

• other tobacco products remained fairly stable as a proportion of the total, only seeing a pronounced increase in the financial year ending 2021

• cigar receipts and other tobacco products remain a small percentage of total tobacco receipts

Figure 3: Cigarette and HRT yearly tobacco receipts for the previous 10 financial years

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 3 go to Tobacco statistics tables (April 2024)

Figure 3 demonstrates several trends for cigarette and HRT yearly receipts:

• cigarette receipts have generally been decreasing since a high of £8,559 million in the financial year ending 2013, stabilising in 2021, but markedly decreasing to £6,476 million in 2023-2024

• HRT receipts almost doubled (increase of 91%) over the last 10 years, from £1,089 million in the financial year ending 2012 to £2,075 million in the financial year ending 2022 and decreased between the financial years ending 2022 and 2024

Figure 4: Cigar and other products yearly tobacco receipts for the previous 10 financial years

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 4 go to Tobacco statistics tables (April 2024)

Figure 4 demonstrates several trends for cigar and other tobacco products yearly receipts:

• cigar receipts have increased by 90% over the previous 5 financial years from £89 million in the financial year ending 2020 to £158 million in the last complete financial year

• other tobacco products receipts more than doubled between the financial year ending 2019 and financial year ending 23 where we noticed an increase when compared with the previous years, primarily driven by March 2023 receipts. Receipts fell in the 2023 - 2024 financial year indicating a return to pre-pandemic levels

• the increase in other tobacco receipts observed in recent years is partly due to the new specific excise category of Tobacco for Heating, previously assessed individually, and changes in preferences during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns; however, these emerging categories remain very small compared to cigarettes and HRT

7. Contacts

The Tobacco Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the Excise duties, VAT, and other indirect tax statistics collection.

For statistical enquiries, contact:

revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk

For media enquiries, see HMRC press office. Telephone: 03000 550 493