AUCKLAND - A public health expert said New Zealand will exceed its target by at least 20 years of becoming smoke-free by 2025 unless tobacco taxes are raised, the New Zealand Herald reports.

Public health specialist Dr. Murray Laugesen, who is preparing a select-committee report on the tax bill, said the planned tobacco excise increases of 10% mean the country would not achieve smoke-free status until the 2040s or 2050s. He said a tax increase of 40% next year, followed by annual increases of 20%, would be necessary to meet the 2025 goal.

Under Laugesen??s proposed system, the price of a generic brand of cigarettes would more than double after four years, with the percentage of adult smokers dropping to 10.4% from the current 16.5%.

In 2009, 21% of the New Zealand adult population smoked.