SummaryObjective: To prove that higher cigarette taxes eventually decrease smoking and do also increase state incomes from tobacco taxes by using Hungarian figures.Method: Collection and analysis of available data on tobacco use, levels of excise and value added taxes on tobacco products and state incomes originating from the tobacco sector.Conclusions: In Hungary, regular tobacco tax increases resulted in decreased cigarette consumption and its lower prevalence figures in some population groups. State incomes have increased in spite of regular cigarette tax raises. Therefore, there is on conflict of interest between the health and finance portfolios in supporting further tobacco tax increases. Hungary should use regular, above the inflation tobacco tax raises as means for improving population health. Tobacco control advocates should prevent tobacco companies´ attempts aimed at deterring decision makers from supporting such tax policies.

Tobacco is among the major preventable causes of death in the world today. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that tobacco kills about 6 million people yearly. The tobacco epidemic is devastating but preventable by strong political measures. This was the reason why in 1996 the World Health Assembly requested WHO to initiate the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of WHO in history: the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). In 2005, this Convention entered into force and changed the landscape of public health. Health was no longer the task of national health ministries, but also of the ministries of finance, economy, environment, consumer protection and many others. The WHO FCTC presents a blueprint for governments to reduce both the supply and the demand for tobacco. To support the Parties to the Convention to implement the WHO FCTC, guidelines on several articles have already been developed by the Parties and adopted by the Conference of the Parties, with others to follow. There is no doubt: the WHO FCTC is one of the most widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations, with 180 Parties involved (as of 15 January 2015), and many of them are implementing the WHO FCTC consistently. This success demonstrates sustained global political will to strengthen tobacco control and to reduce tobacco consumption.We must act now to reverse the global tobacco epidemic and save millions of lives [3]

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Hungary has introduced a total ban on direct and indirect advertising for tobacco products

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