Anybody who’s been here a few years – several decades – will have realised how much prices have risen, none more so than the price of cigarettes.

In the last 25 years the the average price of a packet of cigarettes has risen seven fold: in 1990 that packet of cigarettes cost the equivalent of 0.61 euros whereas today the same packet will cost you 4.37 euros. And the price hike is purely owing to increased taxation.

In fact, Ladies and Gentlemen, tobacco, of all consumer products, thanks to the tax man’s special interest in it, is the one that has most increased in price in Spain.

In the same period the average price of goods and services has ‘only’ doubled (120%). Needless to say, salaries certain have not doubled, so we are in fact poorer.

So, where did I get this information? Did I pull it from an unsavoury part of my body? No! This information has been supplied in a report drawn up by Analistas Financieros Internacionales on the Spanish tobacco industry 1990-2015.

Seventy-seven percent of the price of tobacco is tax (80% in the case of cigarettes), whereas for petrol/diesel it’s 47% and alcohol, 43%.

So, how has this affected smokers? Well, the logic used by the Government is that increasing the tax would not really affect national consumption – people would simply pay more to smoke the same, thereby providing a healthy (an oxymoron?) income for the public coffers.

But it hasn’t worked out that way because consumption in that time period has been reduced by half… officially that is, because the black market has seen a boom.

In fact, legal sales took its biggest drop in 2008, which was precisely when contraband tobacco sprang back from what looked like a terminal dive. During 2014 contraband tobacco represented 12.5% of national consumption – in Andalucia it was closer to 50% (the proximity of Gibraltar). The report claims that the Government lost 1,010m euros in revenue in 2013.

(News: Spain)