Excise duty hiked on cigarettes & tobacco products

New Delhi, Feb 2: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday proposed to further tax smokers and tobacco chewing consumers by hiking the excise duty on cigarettes and tobacco products in the budget for ensuing fiscal 2017-18."I propose to raise excise duty on cigar, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes to Rs 4,006 per thousand or 12.5 per cent from Rs.3,755 per thousand," Jaitley said while presenting the budget in the Lok Sabha here.Excise duty on paper and rolled bidis (handmade) will be increased to Rs 28 per thousand from Rs 21 per thousand and machine made to a whopping Rs 78 per thousand from Rs 21 per thousand.