UPDATED 7.09pm: A pack of 20 cigarettes will increase from about $20 now to around $30 in 2020 after hefty new excise increases were announced as part of the Budget.

LISTEN ABOVE: Director of ASH, Stephanie Erick, joins Larry Williams

The tax on tobacco will rise by 10 per cent on January 1 each year for the next four years.

That is expected to bring in an extra $425 million in tax over that period.

FULL COVERAGE: Budget 2016

It will affect the some 15 per cent of adult New Zealanders who smoke each day - about 550,000 people.

That rate increases to 35 per cent for Maori, and 22 per cent for Pacific people.

Today’s announcement was jointly made by Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox, who said she was proud to advance the work of the party’s previous leader and former associate health minister Dame Tariana Turia.

“[She] oversaw four annual 10 per cent rises in tobacco excise. She worked tirelessly to put a stop to whanau dying needlessly from smoking-related diseases,” Mrs Fox said.

However, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said tobacco tax hikes would disproportionately affect poor families.

“It’s … a legal product. Food kills a lot of people in this country - that is a tsunami of medical problems coming our way, what’s [the Govt] going to do about that?”

“You could look at all the moral and medical issues, but frankly if it’s a legal product why are they slamming working people so hard on that matter?

“A lot of children will not be fed because of that.”

Today’s tax hikes are part of measures designed to make New Zealand smoke-free by 2025.

Associate Health Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga said raising tobacco tax was the most powerful tool to bring down rates of smoking.

“Previous excise increases reduced per capita tobacco consumption by around a quarter and prompted thousands of smokers to quit, and we’re not stopping there.”

MORE: Major Health spend in 2016 Budget

Asked after his Budget address if the tax was more about revenue gathering, Finance Minister Bill English said the evidence was that tax hikes would bring down the number of smokers.

He said some people may feel targeted, but the tax hikes sent a “clear and consistent” message that, in the long-run, New Zealand was committed to drastically bringing down smoking rates.