PHOTO: SUPPLIEDDuty-free tobacco sales in New Zealand’s international airports means up to $96 million of tax revenue has not made it to key parts of the country’s health system, including programmes aimed at reducing smoking, new research shows. However, people travelling internationally can avoid paying the excise tax or GST by buying their tobacco products at airport duty-free stores. This undermined New Zealand’s goals to reduce smoking because it prevented the country from earning between $60m and $96m in tax revenue, between 2015 and 2024. Prof Hoek said the revenue could have been used to support key parts of the New Zealand health system. "It is illogical to subsidise tobacco sales when the revenue could do so much to help people in need.
