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Call To Double Tobacco Tax Wins Wide Support

Colleen Lee – SCMP
Updated on Feb 25, 2008

“A new call has been made by the Committee on Youth Smoking Prevention for tobacco duty to be doubled after a survey by the group found 74 per cent of Hongkongers supported a drastic increase.

Committee chief executive Li Cheong-lung urged the government to double the duty in Wednesday’s budget to discourage under-age smoking. If such an increase was introduced, the duty on a pack of 20 cigarettes would be raised from about HK$16 to about HK$32.

The group also urged the government to use 5 per cent to 10 per cent of tobacco tax revenue to set up a fund to cover work on preventing teenagers from smoking. Mr Li said: “Prevention is always better than cure. It will be so hard for teens to get rid of the habit once they get hooked.”

Government figures show cigarette tax revenue in the 2006-07 financial year totalled HK$2.75 billion, the largest sum in the past 15 years.

In the poll of 1,008 people aged at least 18, 86.5 per cent backed a law to allocate a percentage of the tobacco tax towards efforts to prevent under 18s taking up the habit.

The committee commissioned Chinese University’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies to carry out the survey in December.

The poll also found that 87.5 per cent of interviewees supported a ban on the sale of cigarettes to students wearing school uniform. “It would make it easier for law enforcers and passers-by to notice the wrongdoing,” committee vice-chairman Thomas Tse Lin-chung said.

A new call has been made by the Committee on Youth Smoking Prevention for tobacco duty to be doubled after a survey by the group found 74 per cent of Hongkongers supported a drastic increase.

Committee chief executive Li Cheong-lung urged the government to double the duty in Wednesday’s budget to discourage under-age smoking. If such an increase was introduced, the duty on a pack of 20 cigarettes would be raised from about HK$16 to about HK$32.

The group also urged the government to use 5 per cent to 10 per cent of tobacco tax revenue to set up a fund to cover work on preventing teenagers from smoking. Mr Li said: “Prevention is always better than cure. It will be so hard for teens to get rid of the habit once they get hooked.”

Government figures show cigarette tax revenue in the 2006-07 financial year totalled HK$2.75 billion, the largest sum in the past 15 years.

In the poll of 1,008 people aged at least 18, 86.5 per cent backed a law to allocate a percentage of the tobacco tax towards efforts to prevent under 18s taking up the habit.

The committee commissioned Chinese University’s Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies to carry out the survey in December.

The poll also found that 87.5 per cent of interviewees supported a ban on the sale of cigarettes to students wearing school uniform. “It would make it easier for law enforcers and passers-by to notice the wrongdoing,” committee vice-chairman Thomas Tse Lin-chung said.

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