Budget 2025: Black Market Tobacco Burns $6.9 Billion Hole in Australia’s Budget Revenue

Three years ago, tobacco excise was the government’s fourth-largest source of revenue. This year, it is the seventh.

A photo illustration of black market cigarettes displayed in Melbourne, Australia on March 26, 2025. Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

The 2025/26 budget’s revenue has taken a blow as black market items eat into expected excise tax revenue from the sale of tobacco products.

The budget was supposed to net the government around $7.4 billion in the coming year, a figure that’s almost 50 percent less than predicted in the 2021/22 budget.