Smokers need to tighten up their wallets from now on. Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corp. (TTL) unexpectedly raise the cost of their products by NT$5 (US$0.17) per pack on March 14th. Convenient store retailers said they received the sudden notification Tuesday afternoon to raise the retail prices of tobacco products.
TTL Chairperson An-Hsuan Hsu (徐安旋) said, the company added NT$5 (US$0.17) to the price of packs of more than 30 tobacco products belonging to the five major brands, with the exception for three cigarette brands bearing low market shares in Taiwan.
In the case of Monarch No.6 cigarettes, the price per pack will increase from NT$65 to NT$70 and the cost per carton will increase from NT$650 to NT$700.
Whether imported tobacco companies, including JT International, Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco, which had raised their products’ price by NT$5 last year, will follow suit, the industry said they’re still waiting to see the public’s reaction.
Chairman An-Hsuan Hsu said, the price hike was necessitated by the increased cost of raw materials such as tobacco leaf, cigarette filter and cigarette paper and was needed to comply with the government’s policy of incorporating tobacco health and welfare surcharge into business tax.
Hsu also pointed out, the three cigarette brands in exception, for instance New Paradise cigarettes, became available in the market just last year. Their prices back then already included the increased business tax and raw material price, thus the prices remained the same this year.