A new sin tax on vaping products could have the perverse effect of driving vapers to illicit products, in much the same way the government’s ill-conceived ban on cigarettes in 2020 allowed the black market for tobacco products to explode. This tax is going to wipe out a lot of small vaping businesses, and there is already evidence that it is promoting a black market for vaping products,” says Kurt Yeo, founder of consumer advocacy group Vaping Saved My Life .
Sars is showing its teeth Yeo argues that a similar fate awaits vaping products, as the South African Revenue Service stands to potentially lose out on billions of rands in revenue by over-taxing a product that is less harmful than tobacco smoking. “Vaping is not entirely harmless, but it does eliminate thousands of toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke, which is the cause of almost all the deaths and disease that occur due to smoking,” Yeo says. “This is because vaping does not produce smoke.