Of course it has hurt sale. Cigarette smoking and sales have gone down dramatically from the past. In the early 70's the smoking rate 43% now it is more like 20%.
It seems a bit of stretch to say the government is only interested in the money. While at the same time they restrict the sales and places where cigarettes be smoked.
If it only was that simple... in the EU, even before the first try at a de-facto ban, an Italian MEP (Giancario Scotta , I believe) was already wining before the Comission bacause Italy had already lost 7.6 per cent in 'sin' tax revenue, and the e-cigarette was a major factor in those losses, and 'what was the Comission thinking to do to compensate for those losses'... (Simple: they tried to ban the e-cig after that).
Take France, for example: there was a tobacco price raise
already scheduled and agreeded with the manufacturers. In the mean time, tobacco sales started dropping much more than initially expected. What did their Govnmt do? Instead of forcing the pre-arranged raise (The logical thing to do
if the goal was indeed to make people smoke even less), they simply postponed it! Of course, this was what BT wanted (No company will
raise its prices when demand is
dropping), but the fact remains that the Govnmt itself did not push for the raise. Of course, conflicts of interest may explain that...!
The thing is,
lately, drop in tobacco sales has not been very significant (I believe they even
raised a little around 2010). Nothing that a good old Govnmt could not compensate with a little raise of taxes. But now, with the e-cig market doubling every year since 2010/11, 'they' are getting
really upset. Because now, that sales drop is really starting to show... until now, in recent years,
nothing in tobacco control has achieved those results. And that is scaring the Beejesus out of those people...!
