Anti-smoking group calls for higher tobacco tax ( China Post )
發佈日期： 2012-08-22
The China Post news staff--One of the leading and most active organizations in Taiwan’s anti-smoking campaign urged the government to sharply increase the tobacco tax instead of moderately raising surcharges.
Lin Li-ching, an executive at the John Tung Foundation, said yesterday that Taiwan is losing the battle over tobacco controls and reducing the number of smokers mainly because the government has not increased the tobacco tax for 25 years.
She said the advanced nations have been constantly increasing their tobacco taxes because this is a more effective way of limiting the smoking population.
Hong Kong raised its tobacco tax by an equivalent of NT$40 per pack of cigarettes last year while Australia also boosted its tobacco tax by around NT$46.
Higher tobacco tax will automatically raise retail prices for cigarettes and a 10-percent hike in prices will help reduce tobacco consumption by 4 to 8 percent.
She also said that tobacco tax should account for between 67 percent and 80 percent of total cigarette prices to effectively restrain the increase in smokers.
