S.I. No. 296/1979:

IMPOSITION OF DUTIES (NO. 243) (EXCISE DUTY ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS) ORDER, 1979.

IMPOSITION OF DUTIES (NO. 243) (EXCISE DUTY ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS) ORDER, 1979.

The Government, in exercise of the powers conferred on them by section 1 of the Imposition of Duties Act, 1957 (No. 7 of 1957), section 22 of the Finance Act, 1962 (No. 15 of 1962), and section 2 of the Finance (Excise Duty on Tobacco Products) Act, 1977 (No. 32 of 1977), hereby order as follows:

1. This Order may be cited as the Imposition of Duties (No. 243) (Excise Duty on Tobacco Products) Order, 1979.

2. In this Order "the Act of 1977" means the Finance (Excise Duty on Tobacco Products) Act, 1977 (No. 32 of 1977).

3. (1) The duty of excise on tobacco products imposed by section 2 of the Act of 1977 shall be charged, levied and paid on the products mentioned hereunder at the following rates in lieu of the several rates specified in the Fourth Schedule to the Finance Act, 1979 (No. 11 of 1979), in relation to those products:

(i) on cigars, at the rate of £17.778 per kilogram;

(ii) on cavendish or negrohead, at the rate of £17.965 per kilogram;

(iii) on hard pressed tobacco, at the rate of £11.490 per kilogram;

(iv) on other pipe tobacco, at the rate of £14.442 per kilogram;

(v) on other smoking or chewing tobacco, at the rate of £15.002 per kilogram.

(2) In this paragraph "cigars", "cavendish or negrohead", "hard pressed tobacco", "other pipe tobacco" and "chewing tobacco" have the same meanings as they have in the Act of 1977 (as amended by this Order).

4. The Imposition of Duties (No. 221) (Excise Duties) Order, 1975 ( S.I. No. 307 of 1975 ), is hereby amended by the substitution in paragraph 10 (4) of "£0.99 per kilogram for each kilogram" and "£0.165 per kilogram" for "£0.45 per lb. for each lb." and "£0.075 per lbs", respectively, and by the substitution of "22680 kilograms" for "50,000 lbs" wherever it occurs.

5. Section 1 of the Act of 1977 is hereby amended by--

( a ) in subsection (1)--

(i) the substitution of the following definition for the definition of "cigars":

"'cigars' has the same meaning as in Council Directive No. 79/32 EEC of 18 December 1978 (OJ No. L 10, 16.1.79, p.8) and includes cigarillos within the meaning of that Directive;" and

(ii) the insertion of the following definitions:

"'chewing tobacco' means tobacco in the form of rolls, sticks, strips, cubes or blocks, which is put up for retail sale and specially prepared to be chewed but not smoked

'cigarettes' means rolls of tobacco which are capable of being smoked as they are and which are not cigars;

'smoking tobacco' means--

(i) tobacco which has been cut or otherwise split, twisted or pressed into blocks and which is capable of being smoked without further industrial processing;

(ii) tobacco refuse which is put up for retail sale and can be smoked and is not a cigar or cigarette;"

and

( b ) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (3):

"(4) A product shall not be deemed to be a tobacco product unless it is a cigar or cigarette or smoking tobacco or chewing tobacco".

6. Notwithstanding section 1 of the Act of 1977, as amended by this Order, products which, but for the fact that they consist in whole or in part of substances other than tobacco, would be cigarettes, cigars or smoking tobacco shall be deemed to be cigarettes, cigars or smoking tobacco, as the case may be, with the exceptions that--

( a ) any such product shall not be deemed to be a cigar unless it has a wrapper of natural tobacco or of reconstituted tobacco or a wrapper and binder of reconstituted tobacco, and

( b ) any such product which contains no tobacco and is used exclusively for medical purposes shall not be deemed to be a cigarette or smoking tobacco.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Government, this 4th day of

September, 1979.

SEÁN Ó LOINSIGH,

Taoiseach.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

This Order provides for the expression of rates and amounts relating to excise duty on tobacco products in metric units of measurement in place of imperial units and (in order to comply with Council Directive 79/32 EEC of 18 December, 1978) for the introduction or amendment of definitions of certain tobacco products.