By Suchada Tupchai
On December 7 the cabinet passed a Finance Ministry
proposal to increase excise duty on tobacco from 75 percent to 79 percent.
This is another of the so-called “sin taxes” and will increase foreign
and Thai cigarette prices by 3-8 baht per packet. The intent is to increase
government sector income by 3-4 billion baht and reduce the consumption of
cigarettes and tobacco. The increases become effective from the date they
were passed.
In the past, while the world has been awakened to the
dangers of smoking, Thailand’s tobacco manufacturers have increased
production output from 23 billion cigarettes to 47 billion cigarettes per
year to meet domestic and foreign market demand, bringing net profits of
4,300 billion baht, at an annual increase of 9 percent. Tobacco
manufacturing is a very nice government enterprise and has been one of the
government’s top income earners for years. During the same period the
government has allotted only about 10 million baht for anti-smoking
campaign budgets. This has resulted in Thailand spending tens of billions
of baht in treating patients afflicted with smoking related diseases and
this also increases annually.
A study conducted by the National Statistics Office on
smoking behavior revealed that regular smokers nationwide spend 51.43
billion baht annually. The figures vary regionally depending on total
smokers and total cigarettes smoked. The Central region spends the most
followed by the Northeast, Bangkok and surrounding areas, the South and the
North respectively.
The excise tax increase is just one of the measures
proposed by the World Health Organization and the Anti Smoking Foundation
in order to stop smoking through higher cigarette prices. Global research
on smoking shows that most addicts are the under-educated and are poor. In
Thailand, seven out of 10 addicts have only a primary school education. The
government still lacks sincerity in reducing the smoking figures in this
group even though theoretically cigarettes destroy the market, meaning the
more the number of smokers, the more society is hurt.
Even though it affects all sectors it is the duty of the
government and the duty of the Public Health Ministry to consider the
effects on society and to protect the rights of the non-smoker. Any
measures used must be absolute, as should increases in excise tax. This
means not just the organizing of big events on World Anti-Smoking Day and
then sitting back and allowing the number of smokers to increase. Be strict
on sin tax!
