Home Politics Europe Spanish Authorities Are Being Pressured to Introduce Vape Tax

Spanish Authorities Are Being Pressured to Introduce Vape Tax

Spanish anti-smoking entities are urging the local government to extend the new Tobacco Act to include a tax scheme for e-cigarettes.

Diane Caruana

June 7, 2022

A general e-liquid tax at the EU average rate of €0.15 per ml, with an additional element for nicotine content at €0.006 per mg, is being proposed.

Last year, Spain’s Ministry of Finance said it wanted to tighten the tobacco regulatory framework, so as to be in line with WHO and EU TPD standards, particularly with regards to regulations concerning vaping products and other electronic devices. The draft of the new tobacco bill may be expected to be ready by September 2020, and the new Tobacco Act is expected to be approved by the end of 2021.

The umbrella organisation- the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (Comité Nacional para la Prevención del Tabaquismo (CNPT) has prepared a report for the Ministry of Health suggesting an excise duty based on both volume of e-liquid and nicotine content. It is proposing a general e-liquid tax at the EU average rate of €0.15 per ml, with an additional element for nicotine content at €0.006 per mg.

The group said that with an average tax rate of 35.6%, the Spanish government could collect €35m in revenue a year from the tax. “This is a viable option for the Spanish economy,” said a CNPT spokesperson to ECigIntelligence. “The government would obtain an economic return, while at the same time promoting a reduction in the consumption of these products.”

Commenting on the proposed tax, ECigIntelligence highlighted that if the Spanish government indeed agrees to the tax, the local vape industry would be deeply impacted. The agency believes that the CNPT’s proposal is currently being discussed internally between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance.

Spain’s inaccurate vape campaign

Meanwhile, last November the Health Ministry launched an anti-vaping campaign that not only ignores all the scientific evidence in favour of vaping for smoking cessation and/or tobacco harm reduction, but also makes a number of false claims. Amongst other things, it blames vaping for the EVALI outbreak and says that vapour is carcinogenic.

“On November 18, the Spanish Ministry of Health launched a campaign to discredit the vapor sector, on the basis of widely scientifically denied reports (it blames EVALI among other things for the responsibility of electronic cigarettes, the fact that the vapor emitted is carcinogenic and that electronic smoking is not helpful in quitting smoking, and even claims that it is just as harmful as cigarettes),” said president of the Spanish Association of Vape Professionals, Massimiliano Belli, in an email to Vaping Post.