Indonesia
University of Indonesia public health expert Hasbullah Thabrany threw down the gauntlet to the government recently, demanding that it amend existing tobacco excise provisions in a bid to downscale the prevalence of smoking in the country as well as increase the revenues raised from the industry.
Tobacco excise is regulated under the 2007 Excise Tax Law, which is an amendment of the original 1995 version. The current provision allows excises on tobacco products to be as high as 275 percent of their factory prices or 57% of their retail prices. Hasbullah criticized the regulation for “not doing enough to dissuade Indonesian people from consuming cigarettes on a daily basis”.
“The government must boost the minimum excise on tobacco products to 200% of their retail prices,” Hasbullah said, adding that he had based his demand on the Nawacita, a Sanskrit term for “nine programs” authored by president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and vice president Jusuf Kalla.
“Higher excise taxes would place a higher price on a pack of cigarettes than they have now. It would prevent people from consuming cigarettes due to their stifling price,” Hasbullah explained.
On the other hand, he said, the boost in tobacco excise would be unlikely to curb the habits of heavy smokers, since “heavy smokers will always light a cigarette, even if the price is stifling”.
The center for health economics and policy studies (CHEPS) proposed that the government earmark money raised from an increased excise to be put toward several programs, including empowerment training for tobacco farmers, the national health insurance program, sport and art activities and medical research, but the Finance Ministry’s customs and excise policy head Nasruddin Djoko Surjono said the government had already been directing revenue from tobacco excise to the revenue sharing fund (DBH) since 2007.