Stub out smoking

Steep price hike is the way to go.

WHATEVER the December budget may contain, and already the signals are being sent out to expect one of the most severe in years, one price hike that would evince very little, if any, criticism would be to considerably increase the cost of smoking.

Although cigarettes, and related tobacco products, have invariably been hit in most previous budgets, they were never made so prohibitively expensive as to encourage the majority of smokers to give them up.