Tobacco tax outstrips Balearic budget

TAX on the purchase of tobacco which the Spanish central government have put in place for the coming year will give the administration an income of nearly one thousand million euros more than the total budget it will set aside for the Balearic Islands in 2006. Budget forecasts show that 3'824 million euros will be collected in Madrid through tobacco tax while the Balearics will notch up 127 million euros through the same means. The total budget for the region, due to be presented the Parliamentary ministers today, totals 2'713 million. The coming year will see a change of direction for use of tax collected through tobacco and alcohol sales, as funds are to be channelled into the Health service, a proposal made by central government. The Balearics, along with the Canary Islands, is to receive an extra 50 million euros in budgetary help from the State, to make allowances of the extra costs incurred by virtue of their being island communities. In January, an anti-smoking law, already in place in the Balearics, will come into effect throughout the country banning smoking in the workplace and limiting it in bars and cafés.