Putting the tobacco tax towards security is being touted as the solution to stop aggravated robberies.
A spike in violent attacks has prompted calls to pay for small franchises' security measures.
Motor Trade Association chief executive Craig Pomare says around two-thirds of petrol stations are owned by small companies - and they need help.
"Being able to channel some more of that back into the likes of our small service stations," he told Newshub. "It's tough for them, it affects lives and it affects people."
The ACT Party called for the Government to use tobacco tax to pay for better security for dairy owners in May. Party leader David Seymour said installing cigarette pack dispensers would help tackle the "epidemic of robberies".
- What dairy owners really think of cigarette sales
- Use tobacco tax for dairies' security - David Seymour
- Smoking excise tax should stay, but more needs to be done to help people quit - expert
There have also been suggestions for dairies to stop placing so much advertising on their windows so that robbers don't have as much privacy once they enter the store.
Auckland design champion and general manager of the Auckland Design Office at Auckland Council Ludo Campbell-Reid said in June dairies need to open up and be more visible to the public instead of being hidden behind posters.
"All the advertising plastered over dairies creates this dark space behind the windows so people can't see you," he said.
On Saturday, a man armed with a hammer threatened a gas station attendant in Christchurch before escaping with cigarettes and cash, police reported. It was one of many recent incidents where cigarettes have been targeted by thieves.
A third of dairies in Christchurch have been broken into in the past year by criminals looking for cigarettes, a study in July found.
But researchers were reluctant to blame the government's ever-increasing tax take, as NZ First MP Winston Peters has done, saying there have been no studies on the suspected link.
The Cancer Society interviewed dozens of dairy owners in Christchurch, the results of which were published in the New Zealand Medical Journal.
They found two-thirds of operators are concerned about the security risk stocking tobacco brings, a similar number fear the potential loss of profits going smoke-free might bring.
Last year, a crime prevention group delivered a petition to Parliament arguing shopkeepers should be allowed to arm themselves.
The Government made $1.7 billion in tobacco excise tax in 2017, excluding GST, according to reports.
The Treasury predicts that figure to reach $2.2 billion before GST by 2020 because two more 10 percent tax increases are planned for 2019 and 2020.
Newshub.
