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December 4th, 2012:
Smokers slow high-speed trains in NE China
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-12/04/content_15983930.htm
Updated: 2012-12-04 13:17
( Xinhua)
SHENYANG – Bullet trains on a high-speed railway line in Northeast China have been forced to slow down seven times over the last three days because of smoking passengers, railway police said Tuesday.
In the most recent incident, a fire alarm was triggered by a smoking passenger on high-speed train D8072 from Liaoning province’s capital of Shenyang to the city of Dalian at 9 am Monday, forcing the train to slow from 200 km per hour to 120 km per hour, said a police officer with the Shenyang Railway Public Security Bureau.
The smoker, a 23-year-old Dalian native surnamed Wang, was fined 200 yuan ($32) for violating relevant regulations.
“Smoking is strictly forbidden on high-speed trains, even in the toilets, washing rooms and connecting areas between cars,” said the officer. “Smoking can trigger fire alarms or even cause a fire on the train.”
Violators may be subject to warnings, fines or administrative detention for disturbing order in public transport facilities, according to the police officer.
The Harbin-Dalian High-Speed Railway, which went into operation on Saturday linking three provinces in Northeast China, is the world’s fastest railway in areas with extremely low temperatures. The train’s speed can reach up to 350 km per hour.
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Download PDF : 30 November
CNTC reveals huge profit
Global Times | Yu Xi
Published on March 07, 2012 00:40
State-run cigarette company China National Tobacco Corp’s (CNTC) net profit stood at 117.7 billion yuan ($18.6 billion) in 2010, the company revealed in its first-ever public disclosure of financial figures, according to an Industrial Bank Co report filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange Tuesday.
The bank said in the report that it was planning to sell a 5.2 billion yuan stake to CNTC, which required the disclosure of the tobacco company’s financials. CNTC, the largest manufacturer of tobacco products in the world by sales, has not disclosed financial data for 2011.
CNTC’s profit is close to Shanghai-listed China Construction Bank’s 2010 net profit of 135.03 billion yuan, the third highest among the listed companies in China, according to data published by news portal website sina.com last year.
Chinese tobacco industry is a monopoly industry, and the production and supply chains are dominated by the government, which creates high profits, Li Chang’an, a professor at University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told the Global Times Tuesday.
“The tobacco industry is not the lifeblood of a country and the products are even harmful to people’s health, so the government can’t encourage the industry. However, the industry is a big source of tax revenue for the government and some local governments even regard it as a mainstream industry,” Li said.
The tobacco industry paid 604.6 billion yuan in taxes in 2010, up 16.95 percent year-on-year, according to State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, the industry regulator. And the taxes reached 752.96 billion yuan in 2011, up 22.5 percent year-on-year.
But the monopoly is not beneficial for the development of the company as it makes it difficult to establish a large enterprise with global competitiveness, said Zhou Siran, an analyst at the CIC Industry Research Center.
The country needs to speed up implementation of detailed measures to encourage private investment in railways, urban utilities, finance and energy, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its website in December last year.
“The monopoly position of some State-owned companies should be changed gradually,” Li said.
State-owned companies get favorable treatment by the government in some respects, such as easier access to bank loans and the right to use land, which puts private companies at a disadvantage, Li noted.
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Ten UK arrests in £50m microwave tobacco smuggling ring
BBC News
Ten people have been arrested in raids in the UK and Luxembourg in a suspected £50m tax fraud by an international tobacco smuggling ring.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) believe the gang used microwave ovens and other white goods to smuggle tonnes of illegal tobacco into the UK.
Nine men and one woman were arrested in raids in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Kent, Devon and Luxembourg.
HMRC officers seized 4,800kg of tobacco worth £1.5m in evaded duty.
HMRC, which was assisted by Luxembourg police, said cash had also been seized.
A man aged 46 and a 47-year-old woman were arrested in Ashford, Kent. A man, 53, was arrested in Ormskirk, Lancashire.
Five men, aged 25, 32, 44, 45 and 51 were arrested in Bolton, Bury and Manchester, and a 26-year-old man and 52-year-old man were arrested in Plymouth.
All 10 have been bailed until January or March 2013 pending further enquiries, an HMRC spokesman said.
Tobacco suit urged Tasmania News – The Mercury – The Voice of Tasmania
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/12/04/367567_tasmania-news.html
A LEADING tobacco expert believes states should sue tobacco companies for the health costs of treating smokers.
Australian Council on Smoking and Health president Professor Mike Daube said legal action was one of 10 measures states should adopt to become smoke-free by 2020.
Citing examples of US states which together have successfully sued tobacco companies, Prof Daube said it was a realistic option if Australian states worked in partnership.
“It’s probably not realistic for a state on its own because the tobacco industry has such big resources,” he said.
“But I think it’s feasible in Australia if all states band together and recognise they’re in it for the long haul.”
Speaking at the forum A Smoke-Free Community Is It Possible? in Hobart yesterday, Prof Daube said it was hard to put a price tag on potential lawsuits.
“But between the states I think we’d be talking about tens of billions of dollars,” he said.
Prof Daube also outlined other targets he believed would enable Australian states to become smoke-free, including tough enforcement on sales to minors, a ban on all tobacco PR and lobbying and increased funding of public education.
He defined smoke-free as smoking rates of 5 per cent or less for adults and 3 per cent or less for 12 to 17-year-olds.
In the latest Australian Health Survey results, Tasmania’s rate of smoking was 23.2 per cent, compared with the national average of 18.1 per cent.
Health Minister Michelle O’Byrne said becoming smoke-free would be a huge challenge for Tasmania.
“But it’s not impossible if commonwealth and state governments can work with the community,” she said.
She said the Government would support suing tobacco companies but more work was needed to set up a legal framework.
“I met earlier this year with anti-smoking campaigners from North America who have been advocating for this approach and I joined other state and territory health ministers to ask the Commonwealth to investigate the idea,” she said.
Heart Foundation chief executive Graeme Lynch said the Tasmanian Tobacco Action Plan had a target of reducing smoking rates to 10 per cent by 2020.