ITC Ltd today said that hike in cigarette prices was inevitable due to imposition of excise duty on tobacco in the Union Budget for 2010-11.

"Increase in cigarette prices is inevitable," spokesperson of ITC Najeeb Arif told PTI. He said that while the effective rates of taxation on cigarettes prior to the Budget announcement was 190 per cent, it (the budget) had imposed another 17 per cent excise duty hike.