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Stiff challenge to anti-tobacco lawmaking

A strong interference from the tobacco industry is hampering lawmakers’ plans to put anti-tobacco legislation in place, said officials, adding that attempts to increase tobacco prices through taxation have “failed”.

The UAE’s proposal of a ‘health tax’ on tobacco products is being studied. Last month, a meeting was held in Cairo to review the current taxation system and introduce local taxes on tobacco sale and production in place of customs duty.

Officials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday that the tobacco industry had united and threatened of lawsuits before the GCC governments took a stand and approved the pictorial warnings that will come into effect from August. Taxation, the industry members said, was akin to “killing the tobacco industry”.

They also said that tobacco was the cheapest in the region while the prices of medicines were the highest. “We have been pushing for a 200 per cent taxation on prices for the past several years but have failed due to strong lobbying by the tobacco industry,” said Dr Tawfik Al Khoja, Director-General, Executive Office of the GCC Health Ministers. He was speaking on the sidelines of the two-day 14^th Gulf Symposium on Tobacco Control that began on Wednesday.

“We are now working on imposing a 200 per cent ‘environment tax’ that will also affect the prices of the product,” he explained. This year, the World No Tobacco Day was marked on May 31 with the theme “Stop tobacco industry interference”. “Evidence-based studies say that taxation is the best method to reduce smoking,” he added.

Dr Khoja also suggested using the influence of charitable organisations to highlight the seriousness of the issue. “The industry is strong and national efforts from the government and the society are needed to fight the menace.”

Dr Heba Fouad, a representative from the WHO, said that taxation was the most effective strategy to reduce tobacco consumption. “Let us admit it, the tobacco industry benefits the most from tobacco smuggling because, through it, they can evade taxes,” she said.

She said the industry had been interfering in all decisions. “When we banned smoking in public, they came up with designated areas, when we said stop planting tobacco, they said it would lead to unemployment,” explained Dr Heba. “We still face a lot of challenges and need government support and funding,” she added.

In the region, the mean age of people who start smoking remains 13.8 years while the lowest in Yemen is up to eight years. The number of female smokers has also gone up of late.

“The threat is more than before in the GCC. We need more (pieces of) legislation and laws,” said Dr Khoja. Dr E. Tursan from the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative said that taxes should be 75 per cent of the price of the tobacco product such as implemented in Singapore, Thailand and Australia. “However, only six per cent of the world’s population stay in these countries. But such an increase has seen tobacco consumption go down,” he added.

asmaalizain@khaleejtimes.com