The essence of excise duty on cigarettes aims to regulate public consumption of goods that can harm health. On the other hand, the contribution of cigarette excise tax turned out to provide a sizeable budget revenue for the Indonesian government. This study aims to provide a formative evaluation of the cigarette excise policy in Indonesia. This research was conducted using a literature study research method and a case study approach through theories and references relevant to the topics discussed and reviewing supporting data to describe the problems analyzed. The results of this study indicate that periodically the state revenue from cigarette excise continues to increase from year to year. The increasing number of young smokers shows that the target consumers of goods subject to excise lead to deviations from the essence of imposing excise. Most of the budget allocation from cigarette excise is used to re-develop the cigarette industry and socialize illegal cigarettes. In order to harmonize the essence of excise duty, supporting regulations are needed that are determined to reduce the increasing number of smokers in line with the increasing excise revenue from year to year.