Students march to demand stronger tobacco monitoring. (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Health(MoH) has proposed to raise the tax imposed on a pack of cigarettes to 2,000 VND(0.088 USD).
Meanwhile,the draft law on Special Consumption Tax, which will come into effect in 2020,plans to put a tax of 1,000 VND (0.044 USD) on a pack of cigarettes or increasethe tax from 75 to 80 percent of the tobacco’s price from 2020 onwards and from80 to 85 percent from 2021 onwards. Currently, tax on tobacco is 70percent of their prices.
The taxation policy aims to gain an additionaltobacco tax revenue of 6,300 billion VND (280 million USD) per year, decreasingthe rate of male smokers by three percent and reducing 300,000 early deathscaused by smoking.
Speaking at a recent press conference hosted bythe Ministry of Information and Communications, Phan Thi Hai, deputy directorof the Tobacco Consequences Prevention Fund under the MoH, said in 2015, Vietnamesepeople who smoked spent 31,000 billion VND (1.4 billion USD) on tobacco, whilethe total treatment expense for smoking-related diseases was 24,000 billion VND(1.05 billion USD).
According to a report of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO), 40,000 Vietnamese die of smoking-related diseases annually.The number is expected to go up to 70,000 in the coming years.
Some 45.3percent men aged 15 and above are smokers, while 56 percent start smokingbefore the age of 20, according to Pham Thi Hoang Anh, director of HealthBridgeCanada Organisation in Vietnam.
Experts believe the low price of tobacco productsis the main cause leading to its widespread use.
In 2005-06, the per capita income in the countryincreased 4.7 times, but cigarette prices increased only 2.2 times.
Nguyen Tuan Lam, a WHO representative in Vietnam,said that the percentage of tobacco tax on retail price in Vietnam (35.6percent) was much lower than the world average (56 percent) and other countriesin ASEAN, Thailand (73 percent) and Singapore (66 percent).
“A tax increase of 10 percent is estimated toreduce tobacco consumption by four percent in developed countries and by fivepercent in developing countries. It will also contribute to reducing thesmoking rate among the poor and the young,” Lam said.
By increasing tax to 5,000 VND (0.22 USD) percigarette pack, Vietnam can stop 1.8 million people from smoking, prevent900,000 smoking-related early deaths and get 10,700 billion VND (470 millionUSD) in the State budget.
Many studies have indicated that the smoke from acigarette contains more than 4,000 chemicals, of which over 200 are toxic andadditives, especially nicotine.
In April, Tobacco Consequences Prevention Fund, incollaboration with Vital Strategies, an international healthcare organisation,launched a mass media campaign on the harmful effects of tobacco consumptionand its prevention.-VNA
