Working together to provide safer alternatives

Working together to provide safer alternatives

Following calls from Philip Morris for a ‘tax break’ on its smokeless tobacco products in return for removing cigarettes from NZ shelves, Imperial Tobacco New Zealand has reaffirmed its commitment to working with the Government to ensure sensible legislation and regulation of e-cigarettes is introduced later this year.

Corporate Affairs Manager for NZ, Louise Evans-McDonald, said consumers deserve access to a safer alternative and the introduction of e-cigarettes and Imperial is committed to working with the NZ government to achieve sensible regulations in this space as soon as practicable.

“There were calls today for a tax break to be applied to Philip Morris’ e-cigarettes which contain tobacco despite the fact that these products do not currently attract the excise levels of cigarettes and so already have a tax advantage in our view,” she said.

“Imperial is committed to offering the world’s smokers a safer alternative to cigarettes and our priority in this space is to ensure sensible regulation is introduced in NZ to allow consumers to have a choice,” she said.

“International research continues to back vaping and e-cigarettes as a viable harm reduction tool and we are committed to offering something better for the world’s smokers.”

“We also remain committed to providing the best quality products to our consumers, including cigarettes and loose tobacco, where there is demand.”

© Scoop Media