Smoking a cigarette to cost more for smokers as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a 16 per cent increase in the customs duty on cigarettes in the Budget 2023.
In her speech, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed the National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on specified cigarettes be revised upwards by about 16 per cent.
The hike in NCCD on cigarettes comes two years after it was kept unchanged.
Though the announcement was initially seen as negative for the cigarette makers but analysts believe cigarette companies would not find it difficult to pass on the meagre cost bump to the customers as prices have not increased much in the last two years.