Cigarettes and booze go up Monday
(CNS): The government’s latest duty increases take effect on Monday 17 September when both cigarettes and alcohol will go up in price. Smokers will be paying over $2 a pack more for cigarettes, while drinkers will have to find a further 30 cents per litre on their choice of tipple. The premier’s office confirmed Friday that importers will also be paying a new CI$100 inspection fee on all cargo containers and a fee of CI$2 per 100lbs or part thereof on all loose cargo and packages. The increases are part of the new revenue measures introduced in the 2012/13 budget.
The import duty rate on cigarettes has doubled to CI$210 per thousand cigarettes from the previous rate of $105 and the rate on alcohol will increase by 30 cents per litre for all alcohol, including ale, beer, wines, champagne and spirits.
Government imposed some 24 new fees and tax increases in this fiscal year in order to raise an extra $90 million in revenue for 2012/13 compared to the previous fiscal year to cover operational expenses and produce a surplus budget.
Category: Local News
The more money we donate to Macdumba$$$ in the form of taxes to support his addiction to dumba$$ spending…the more he will spend….. so next year more taxes will be added and so on and so on and so on. Get rid of the problem at the source.
Thanks to Cayman. I finally quit smoking~
Perfect climate for a Black Market. One for cigars already exists, but cigarette smuggling and illegal sale will sky-rocket.
Don't tell the expats – they're the only people paying retail and taxes these days.
Don't use phrases like "Black Market", you will upset Whodatis. "Alternative Market Freed From The Shackles Of The Colonial Hegemony" is the better phrase.
Lol!
You people love me, don't you?
Tax soda pop like crazy. It probably causes more deaths here in Cayman than cigs.Just sayin.
obviously not the diet versions…….
plus dont forget the 'sports' drinks and the 'fruit' juices…..
So Monday a pack of cigarettes will be 7$, while the same pack was imported last week with the lower duty.
That's how business is done in cayman.
The poor are paying the bill for a corrupt government.
If some ppm'ers would promise to turn back this tax increase, they would have a guaranteed win in the next elections.
In the meantime the current politicians will rake in as much as they can.
Ciggies have been $7 for the past year, they are now going to be $8-10 depending on where you purchase.
LMAO , you must love spend money, where on earth have you been buying yours? Up until this, they were $5 a pack in Fosters, $5.50 in Tortuga and most other establishments and only about $7 if you bought them at a bar.
I love spending money on pointless things just like those around us who live on this island with a max speed limit of 50mph and a Ferrari in their garage.
And just to point out a fact, if you are addicted to something i.e. ciggies, you will pay whatever they cost, plain and simple.
The handout from the CFS will not purchase much food for the smokers who have to buy cigarettes. They should increase the cost to $100 per pack. It is a terrible habit that is not appreciated by most people.
I think I might start smoking. It's cheaper than milk.
While weed is illegal it is also duty free, the cheaper less harmful alternative to realx after a hard days work
More like ten dollars a pack
A note on gouging……………………
There is no duty paid on any of the products in any of the bonded warehouses on the island
until the product leaves the warehouse and is destined for delivery to a retailer.
Any wine, beer, spirits or tobacco deliveries made on or after Monday, September 17th will
include the new increased duties. Do not count price increases on these products as
gouging. Any increases will only be as a result of the increased cost to the retailer and the
need to maintain profit margins.
$9.00 per Pack…………………..That's insane.
It's easy to quit smoking, I've done it 1000 times !!
Some gas stations are presently charging $7.50 a pack. (their cost $4.20 per pack wholesale). If they maintain the same margin that makes the new price on cigarettes CI $11.25 or US $13.72. Just FYI, at $70k for a weekend in Panama that’s 6087 packs of smokes.
A government run lottery. This has proven to be a gold mine for governments in other jurisdictions. Call it a monopoly on legalized gambling. It has become effective in filling government coffers. Especially when there is an air of desperation, More especially when people have realized it doesn't matter how hard they work or attempt to save….it will be sucked up somehow.
The Governments method of generating funds is to increase local taxs. Someone in Government has got to figure out that we need to bring in funds in a different way like a lottery or gambling or something. I simply know that soon the normal people in this country will not be able to live here. Nor will cheap labour.
In sufficient numbers in Cayman to generate a meaningful jackpot prize (in the economic sense of the term) while providing meaningful revenue streams for government once costs are taken into account. Mac did fly a hand picked outsourcing company into Cayman with a pitch for a lottery and they had plenty of UDP friendly advisers with them, but that never moved forward.
Same thing that happened in England, the poor working class cannot afford to put their feet up at the end of the day with a pint and a smoke.
Look at England and you will see Cayman in 5 years. I was brought up in England in a poor working class family and ended up being a door latch kid, no fun, no parents, no nothing.
What is going to happen here when the financial industry moves out and people can’t afford to have vacations here.
There will be no revenue to pay any pensions let alone welfare, if you think I’m wrong just ask any realtor how much the rollover screwed property sales.
Has anyone any idea how much we have lost in stamp duty over the last couple of years?
By the way I don’t smoke or drink but there are some people that could only afford their simple pleasure of a pint and a cigarette.
Just quit smoking and drinking so much
Hope expats and caymanians united are happy now. When I am living in another country I have to abide by the laws of the country and pay tax to live and work there. That is the way the world works, cayman has spoiled these expats for too many years now, they don’t care about cayman all they care about is what they can get out of living here. I don’t care who likes it from who doesn’t like it that is the truth.
Well, that is ok as long as the Caymanians did not get spoiled, everything will work out!
"Cayman has spoiled these expats for …." WOW! Now THAT is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Ever.
Let me let you into a secret, I don't declare everything I buy in Miami either.
21:19, you have officially earned the prize for the stupidest post ever on CNS. This is the kind of rhetoric that could only come from a UDP supporter or an Ostrich.
Hilarious. Your Premier is the one you have spoilt with his lavish and irresponsible wastage of our money. When you live in another paying taxes, newsflash, you are paying the same as everyone in that country regardless of their origin so that doesn't make you unique. Expat and Caymanians United had everything to do with trying to encourage your Premier and his government to cut their spending and be more responsible with the public purse, and nothing to do with your Premier adding $2 to the cost of each pack of cigarettes. This "tax" is a Bush Tax so we can continue to fund his lavish spending. I don't care who likes it from who doesn't like it – that's the truth.
Quite true and I don't deny it. I am here to add to capital. Why else would I be here?
It would be illegal for prices to increase first thing Monday morning before the first new shipment of cigarettes and booze arrives on Island. Merchants who have on Island stock of cigarettes and booze I am sure are aware of the new price gouging provisions of law passed post Ivan. I hope CI govt Price Gouging Control Commission is not asleep at the wheel and will fulfill its mandate.
more wonderland economics from mckeeva………..
all because…mckeeva hasn't got the guts to cut the civil service…….
this place is one bad joke…..that will never recover….
There's really not much point staying here, we are being priced off of the island. Cayman is just getting too damn expensive to live in and its not just the booze and cigarettes. Everything is expensive and is going up and up – and wages are having to stay the same as businesses are absorbing higher costs too.
No matter where you go to live, the cost of living is going up. It’s a worldwide phenomenon. Some places are inherently more expensive to live. No two ways, the cost of living is high in Cayman but wherever you go, it is all relative.
18:31, step away from the pipe, that's it, put the pipe down.
All well and good, but our cost of living would not be going up, in fact it would be a lot less, without the reckless hands that are in charge of our public purse now. This is not due to the cost of living, its due to outrageous government spending, and rather than stop it, the government simply want more money from us so they can continue with their outrageous spending and lavish lifestyles at our expense. BIG difference.
A tax by any other name is still a tax! And yes, it will be interesting to see how investor interest in Cayman measures up in the year(s) to come. Not too many "savy" investors place their money in businesses in countries where the taxes and fees only punish their efforts.
What is a "savy" investor?
One that is on the "gravvy" train?
It sounded like it had something to do with food. Or is that savoury?
As Flip Wilson used to say…."the cost of living going up, the chance of living going down"..
And after a surplus budget has been produced all these new fees and taxes will go back to they way they were before???????
Yeah right.
Good Luck to us.
Drink more Caybrew!
Yep you are correct. Once they stay at 1,00 you will surely have the sales. Put on one cent nore, and I would but Coors light.
Lets boycott the increase in the costs of cigarettes and thus one of our Govt's newly enacted revenue measures by quitting!!!!!!
Oh wait….lets not…..everything else would go up by the end of the year again…….