EU tax proposal opposed

 Following reports that the EU is planning to tax electronic cigarettes under the same regime as applies to tobacco cigarettes, the UK Labour peer and medical professional Lord Turnberg told the House of Lords that such a move would have a detrimental impact on public health, according to a story by Shaun Connolly for the Press Association News.

Lord Hung of Kings Heath questioned why the EU was trying to “make it much more difficult for e-cigarettes to be promoted” despite e-cigs’ “clear benefit to the public health”.

And the Conservative, Viscount Ridley, suggested that EU regulations on electronic cigarette promotions could be a result of pressure from the pharmaceutical industry that is worried about the nicotine replacement therapy market losing market share to electronic cigarettes.

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean said the British government was powerless to stop the EU when “these e-cigarettes cost less … [and] enable people to save their health”.

However, Lord Prior of Brampton, minister for NHS Productivity, was quoted as saying: “Any proposal on an excise duty is not part of the directive as I understand it. We should be promoting this product, not discouraging it.”