http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/321050/doubled-cigarette-prices-reduce-deaths
Smoking-related deaths in Thailand and four other Asian countries where tobacco use is amongst the highest in the world would drop by 20% if cigarette prices were doubled by increased taxation, according to an Asian Development Bank study released on Tuesday.
Photo by Jetjaras na Ranong
The Manila-based bank claimed that even a 50% price hike would save 27 million people from dying from smoking-related diseases and cause nearly 67 million current smokers to quit, or youths not to take up the habit, in China, India, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
“An even higher price increase of 100% yields greater benefits, saving nearly 55 million lives in the five countries or about 20% of the projected deaths,” the study said.
An estimated 402 million people are smokers in China, India, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, while 130 million more are projected to be future smokers.
“In the absence of intervention, smoking will eventually kill about 267 million current and future cigarette smokers who are alive today in the five countries,” it said.
A 50% increase in cigarette prices would also generate more than US$24 billion (936 billion baht) in additional tax revenues annually, the study said.