From: BetterRetailing.com
By Chloe Taylor
The rise of cross-category “sin taxes” will have a punitive effect on independent retailers by fuelling illicit trade, a leading economist has warned.
Chris Snowdon, head of lifestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, told an audience at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum that using the “tobacco-style template” across other categories, such as soft drinks, would open up new black markets.
“Once you start regulating products as if they’re cigarettes, you create the same problems we’ve seen arise from the over-regulation of tobacco,” he told Retail Express.
