India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley budget for the 2014/15 fiscal year
India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley poses as he leaves his office to present the union budget for the 2014/15 fiscal year, in New Delhi. Reuters

Twitter is abuzz with hilarious tweets and memes criticising the rise in the price of cigarettes in India's 2014 Union Budget.

The 2014 budget presented by the country's finance minister Arun Jaitley today, announced an increase in the prices of cigarettes, tobaccos, aerated drinks and colas. In a bid to bring down smoking in India, the excise duty on cigarettes was hiked from 11% to a whopping 72%.

Shoes and cell phones will be cheaper now, but the 2014 budget will burn a larger hole in the cigarette smoker's pocket. Gone are the days of sipping cola and smoking cigarettes at the corner store.

India's health minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, recently said that he "supports" higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Speaking to The Economic Times, Harsh Vardhan said, "Raising the proportion of specific tax on cigarettes as a percentage of their retail price from about 45 percent to over 60 percent of the retail price of cigarettes would conservatively lead to about three million smokers quitting and nearly three million children not starting."

Here are some of the popular reactions on the cigarette hike by Twitter users.