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May 28th, 2017:

Saudi to impose tobacco, sugary drinks tax on June 10

Saudi Arabia will impose a special tax on tobacco and sugary drinks on June 10, as part of a series of steps towards closing a budget deficit caused by low oil prices.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-tax-idUSKBN18O0OA

Khalid Khurais, director of the selective tax unit of the General Authority of Zakat and Tax, told Al Arabiya television on Sunday that rules covering the tax were published in the official gazette last week and would take effect after 15 days.

Officials have said they expect to raise between 8 billion and 10 billion riyals ($2.1 billion to $2.7 billion) annually from the tax, which will comprise a 50 percent levy on soft drinks and 100 percent on tobacco and energy drinks.

The tax marks a big change in policy for Riyadh, which has traditionally kept taxation minimal but now plans a series of levies and fees by 2020 to close a budget gap that totalled 297 billion riyals last year. Next January it plans to impose a 5 percent value-added tax, a much bigger revenue-generating step.

The other countries in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council have also agreed to impose the tax on tobacco and sugary drinks, and are expected to do so in coming months.

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Stephen Powell)

SmokeFree Tasmania and Minister trade barbs

A war of words has erupted between the Health Minister Michael Ferguson and advocacy group, SmokeFree Tasmania, after it accused the government of bowing to the wishes of big tobacco companies.

http://www.examiner.com.au/story/4691300/government-slams-smoke-group-claims/

The stoush comes after Tasmania was named runner-up in the Australian Medical Association’s Dirty Ashtray Award – for governments that make the least effort to reduce smoking.

Responding to the second placing, Health Minister Michael Ferguson said the state would achieve better scores from the association as more policies aimed at reducing smoking rates were implemented.

But SmokeFree Tasmania north member Harley Stanton said the government had included suggestions from big tobacco companies to formulate its Healthy Tasmania Strategic Plan.

“Given that the Tasmanian government, in its healthy Tasmania policy, included advice from Imperial Tobacco it is not surprising that they have been nationally rebuked,” he said.

“This is both embarrassing internationally and bad conduct for any government.”

Fellow SmokeFree Tasmania adviser Kathryn Barnsley said the government needed to distance itself from tobacco companies.

She said the benefit of the government’s crusade on the illicit tobacco market benefited tobacco companies, like Imperial Tobacco.

“The tobacco industry wants the government to crack down on illicit tobacco, but the illicit market is not a health problem,” she said.

But Mr Ferguson slammed the comments as “complete and utter rubbish”.

“I also point out for the record that last year, the government proposed as part of the five-year plan raising the smoking age to 21, and SmokeFree Tasmania aggressively campaigned against it which is inexplicable,” he said.

Dr Barnsley said the government had also failed to provide more money for mass-media campaigns to reduce smoking rates.

Dr Stanton criticised the government’s health expenditure announced in last week’s budget.

“Prevention is better than a cure and reducing the number of people smoking will take pressure off our hospitals,” he said.

Smokers Undeterred as Bills Keep Rising

Since the beginning of the past fiscal year (ended in March) the taxes collected on tobacco products are paid to the Health Ministry (50%), Education Ministry (25%) and Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs (25%) for anti-smoking campaigns

https://financialtribune.com/articles/people/65335/smokers-undeterred-as-bills-keep-rising

Iranians spend $1-1.5 million (40 to 50 billion rials) on tobacco products each day and the cost of treating tobacco-related disease is almost three times more than the amount spent on tobacco consumption.

During the past five years, the rate of tobacco consumption has only slightly decreased, studies conducted by the Health Ministry indicate. The rate is still high among adolescents and young people (the peak age for first trying of smoking has decreased from 13 to 10). The figure has also increased dramatically compared to the past decade, the Persian language weekly ‘Salamat’ reported.

“In 2006, Iranians smoked 50 billion cigarettes (worth $33.3 million). The figure reached 60-70 billion cigarettes in 2016,” said Dr Mohammadreza Madani, head of the Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association (IATA).

Another concern is the high prevalence of hookah (water pipe) for smoking flavored tobacco among young people. One hour of smoking hookah exposes a smoker 100-fold to the amount of smoke inhaled from a single cigarette. Even those people around a hookah smoker inhale smoke equal to 10 cigarettes.

Every year on May 31, the WHO marks World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), highlighting the health and additional risks associated with tobacco use, and advocating effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2017 is ‘Tobacco – a threat to development.’

But irrespective of the programs to create awareness on the harmful effects of smoking, statistics show that 14-15% of Iranians from the 80 million population are regular cigarette smokers (more than 3% are women, and 20% men).

“Though most of the cigarette smokers are men, hookah smoking doesn’t vary by gender; 21.3% of women and 21.7% of men are hookah smokers,” Madani said.

Dodging Taxes

Iran is one of the nations that has signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), by which a country is committed to reduce the rate of tobacco consumption every year (by implementation of both price and tax measures as well as non-price measures to reduce demand for tobacco).

Pointing to Article 8 of the National Comprehensive Law on Tobacco Control, Madani said, “According to the law passed in 2006, every year taxes on cigarettes should be increased by 10%.”

“However, there have been always obstacles in its implementation. For example, in 2010 the figure decreased to 5% due to ‘manipulative tactics’ by the powerful tobacco lobby. Tobacco producers said that high taxes on cigarettes would lead to an increase in cigarette smuggling, and thus managed to reduce the tax.”

However, in January this year, lawmakers passed cigarette and tobacco tax slabs to be implemented under the sixth five-year economic development plan (2017-22).

Based on the new law, the tax slab on locally-produced tobacco and cigarettes is 10%; for local brands jointly produced by domestic and foreign manufacturers, it is 20%; for domestically produced cigarettes with foreign brand names the slab is 25%; and for imported cigarettes and tobacco, it is 40%.

Lawmakers also mandated the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade to announce the retail prices of cigarettes and all tobacco products to the relevant authorities for taxation purposes and for printing the tax rates on cigarette packs.

“Since the beginning of the past fiscal year (ended in March) the taxes collected on tobacco products are paid to the Health Ministry (50%), Education Ministry (25%) and Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs (25%). The Education Ministry is required to spend the money on increasing students’ awareness of harms associated with tobacco smoking,” Madani said.

Earlier, the tax money was given to the ministries of health and sports and youth affairs.

Facts About Tobacco

There are more than 7 million deaths from tobacco use every year, a figure that is predicted to cross 8 million by 2030 without effective and intensified action. Tobacco consumption is a threat to any person, regardless of gender, age, race, cultural or educational background. It brings suffering, disease, and death, impoverishing families and national economies.

Tobacco use costs national economies enormously through increased healthcare costs and decreased productivity. Some 80% of premature deaths from tobacco occur in low- or middle-income countries, which face increased challenges to achieving their development goals, the WHO website reports.

Tobacco growing requires large amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, which can be toxic and pollute water supplies. Each year, tobacco growing uses 4.3 million hectares of land, resulting in global deforestation between 2% and 4%. Tobacco manufacturing also produces over 2 million tons of solid waste.

By increasing cigarette taxes worldwide by $1, an extra $190 billion could be raised for development. High tobacco taxes contribute to revenue generation for governments, reduce demand for tobacco, and offer an important revenue stream to finance development activities.

Higher tobacco prices are an effective preventative measure

Thirty percent of the estimated 2.3 million smokers in Austria are considered to be heavily tobacco-dependent and, according to experts at MedUni Vienna, require professional treatment. This would mean around 690,000 people. According to Michael Kunze, an expert on smoking at the Center for Public Health at MedUni Vienna, an effective strategy would be to increase the price of tobacco products: “If the price of cigarettes were to rise just one percent above the inflation rate, that would bring about a 0.5% reduction in consumption worldwide.”

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-higher-tobacco-prices-effective.html

“At MedUni Vienna we were among the first to suggest solving this problem via a pricing strategy and to provide scientific evidence to back this up,” explains Kunze on the occasion of World No Smoking Day this coming Sunday (31 May). However, this strategy would only make sense if it were to be implemented throughout Europe or within the European Union (EU). A cohesive policy is required because, at the moment, the completely different pricing policies in the various EU countries are getting in the way.

Making effective nicotine replacement treatments more accessible

At the same time, the social medicine experts at MedUni Vienna are calling for an effective programme of nicotine replacement therapy, similar to the methadone programme for heroin addicts. Although treatment options are available, they bear the stigma of being a drug treatment. “Many smokers say they do not want to take drugs, because they do not feel ill. If the replacement therapies were available without prescription, in pharmacies for example, the programme would work much better,” stresses Kunze, citing the example of the Swedish programme with the air-dried chewing tobacco “Snus”, whereby the nicotine finds its way into the bloodstream via the oral mucosa.

“Snus” is less damaging to health because it does not give rise to any toxins, such as those produced by burning tobacco during smoking. Kunze: “The prevalence of lung cancer has dropped by 50% in Sweden as a result.” International studies have shown that consuming smokeless tobacco is up to 95% less harmful than smoking. However, with the exception of Sweden, the commercial sale of “Snus” is banned in the EU, even though it is not illegal to buy it, if you are aged 18 or over.

Smoking cessation brings benefits after only a few days

The possible negative consequences of long-term tobacco consumption are clearly evidenced: tobacco consumption is the single biggest cause of illness and premature death in Europe: around 90% of deaths from lung cancer are caused by smoking and the same applies to 75% of deaths from chronic bronchitis and other respiratory diseases. Moreover, cigarette smoking is implicated in the development of pancreatic, kidney and cervical cancer.

It has also been proven that positive effects can occur very soon after quitting: “Even just a few days after the last cigarette, the risk of cardiovascular disease falls rapidly. Smoking practically constitutes carbon monoxide poisoning so, if you stop, you stop poisoning yourself,” says Kunze. However, the cancer risk remains elevated for many years afterwards.
Read more at: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-higher-tobacco-prices-effective.html#jCp