National statistics

Tobacco statistics commentary January 2024

Updated 29 February 2024

1. Headline statistics

The latest headlines for Tobacco Duty statistics are:

• total tobacco receipts for the last complete financial year, 2022 to 2023, were £10,004 million, which is £274 million (3%) lower than the previous financial year

• there was an increase in receipts between the financial year ending 2021 and the financial year ending 2022, in part due to the duty rate increase in October 2021 – following the duty increase in March 2023, duty increased again 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 comprise 22% of total tobacco receipts in the previous financial year, ending 2023, from 10% 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 January 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.

Tobacco duties are usually uprated each year. Clearances tend to be high in months immediately preceding the rate changes 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 (January 2024)

Figure 1 demonstrates several trends for total Tobacco Duty receipts:

• April 2023 receipts of £648 million are lower than that in the previous three financial years and more closely reflect receipts prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, at £647 million in April 2019 and £784 million in April 2018

• total tobacco receipts for the latest financial year quarter (October 2023 to December 2023) is £2,138 million, which is £240 million (10%) lower 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 (January 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

• HRT has seen a fairly substantial increasing trend over the last 10 years, with a more pronounced increase starting from the financial year ending 2021 onwards

• 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 (January 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 before stabilising from the financial year ending in 2021 onwards and reaching the current level of £7.516 million

• HRT receipts have more than doubled (increase of 118%) over the last 10 years. From £1,007 million in the financial year ending 2012 to £2,194 million in the financial year ending 2022 and depicting a minor decreasing trend between the financial years ending 2022 and 2023

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 (January 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 £74 million in the financial year ending 2019 to £141 million in the last complete financial year

• other tobacco products receipts have continued to increase since the financial year ending 2019 and more than doubled between the financial year ending 2020 and the financial year ending 2021

• other tobacco products receipts stabilised between the financial years ending 2021 and 2022, before increasing by £60 million (65%) between the financial year ending 2022 and the financial year ending 2023

• the increase in other tobacco receipts observed in recent years is due in part to the introduction of a specific excise category of Tobacco for Heating included within other tobacco, which was previously assessed on a product-by-product basis. This is also driven, in part, by changes in preferences expediated through the national lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. These emerging categories are still very low in scale relative to those in the figures above for 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