of bad habits going through the roof.

The biggest increase is one Winston Churchill would despise -- a 33.5 percent hike in the tax on cigars.

Cigarettes will now cost 13 cents a smoke, up three cents a cigarette and $6.00 a carton -- a rise of 30 percent.

But there is no mention of an increase in tax for rolling tobacco or pipe tobacco.

And drinkers beware. Beer, wine and spirits will all go up in April by five percent.

In a press conference after delivering the Budget Minister of Finance Eugene Cox made no apology for taxing drink and tobacco.

"When they think about it they will see it as not an unfair tax at this time,'' he said.

"I think these are reasonable taxes we are putting to the populace.'' Mr. Cox said that if the tax on tobacco discouraged young men and women from smoking it would be a good thing.

He said: "What's three cents, when it could probably save your life. What concerns me is when you see young people smoking and they don't heed the warnings we put out. Even with three cents cigarettes are not as expensive as they were ten years ago.'' In total the "sin tax'' will bring in an extra $2.37 million in revenue -- almost half the budget last year for the Ministry of Telecommunications & E-commerce and just two percent of the total allocated to Health by the Government.

Mr. Cox said: "The duty on cigarettes and tobacco products and on alcoholic beverages is to be increased. The new rate for cigarettes is $0.13 cents per cigarette with an expected yield of $1.8 million in additional revenue.

"This duty increase will add $6.00 to the existing retail price of a carton of cigarettes. The duty rate on cigars will be increased to 33.5 per cent with an expected incremental yield of $70,000. The duty on beer, wines and spirits will be increased by five per cent with an expected incremental yield of $500,000 in tax revenue.''