One convenience store in Al Barsha added that they had to lower the price of 3 Stars cigarettes from Dh11 to Dh5.50 per pack.- KT file photo

Cigarette sales have gone down after prices have gone up since December 1, following the implementation of the government's directive setting the minimum price of a cigarette stick at 40 fils or Dh8 for a pack of 20 sticks.
Several retailers have confirmed to Khaleej Times that they have experienced a drop in sales as the cheapest cigarettes that used to be sold between Dh4 and Dh5 before the implementation of the new excise tax are now being sold at more than double the price.
A random check by Khaleej Times two weeks ago revealed that the cheapest cigarettes available in the UAE are now being sold for Dh8.50 per pack. Khaleej Times returned to the same stores on Friday and sellers said there was a slump in sales of cheap cigarette brands.
One convenience store in Al Barsha added that they had to lower the price of 3 Stars cigarettes from Dh11 to Dh5.50 per pack because the stock is not moving. "No one is buying and only when we returned to its original price prior to December 1 did people started buying the brand again. Anyway, we are just trying to finish our old stock," the shopkeeper said.
The UAE's Federal Tax Authority (FTA) has earlier called on all businesses registered for excise tax to comply with the minimum price that has been fixed for tobacco products and update it in the authority's system, as determined in Cabinet Decision No. (55) of 2019 on the Excise Price for Tobacco Products. The decision stipulates that excise price cannot be set under Dh0.4 (40 fils) for one cigarette. And the minimum price for water pipe tobacco (known in Arabic as 'Mu'assel') was set at Dh0.1 (10 fils) per gram. This directive applies to all brands of cigarettes and locally-traded tobacco products.
The FTA stressed that enforcing a minimum excise price for cigarettes and other tobacco products serves to accomplish two strategic objectives: "Protect consumers and the community from products that damage public health and the environment, and prevent price manipulation for the purpose of tax evasion."

Government records

The good news is health officials claim cigarette sales slump is partly due to excise tax.
Based on government statistics, the number of cigarette smokers in the UAE is on the decline from 11.1 per cent of the population in 2010 to 9.1 per cent this year. The number of smokers who kicked the habit doubled in the span of two years, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap), said.
"The number of people ditching tobacco products rose to 122 per cent from 2016 to 2018 and smoking cessation clinics in the country recorded a 47 per cent increase in visitors in the same period," according to the ministry.
Thomas Vanhee, partner at Aurifer Middle East Tax Consultancy and an affiliate professor of tax law, told Khaleej Times: "Like the imports in Saudi Arabia, which have significantly decreased, the impact on the UAE market is also a decline in cigarette sales. This is in line with the UAE's tax policy to discourage products which are harmful for the health."
"On the question whether it reaches its objectives of decreasing consumption, at least on the basis of the decreasing sales, one would say the objective has been reached," Vanhee pointed out.
"The additional tax on harmful products is a small price to pay for the larger good of our society," said Dr Cherian Thampy, medical oncologist at NMC Specialty Hospital Abu Dhabi.

Kick the butt, go for health

Prasanth Manghat, CEO and executive director, NMC Health Plc.
In the UAE, cigarette smoking is being curbed by the regulatory and 'sin tax' on cigarettes, which were introduced in the fourth quarter of 2017, pushing up prices by as much as 100 per cent. This is in line with the World Health Organisation policy that says at least 70 per cent of the retail price of cigarettes should be made up of tax - to encourage smokers to quit.
The introduction of the minimum price of a cigarette by the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) is helping the cause and more people are quitting, if not, reducing their cigarette consumption.
But we have to do more to expose the harmful effects of smoking. According to Abu Dhabi Health Survey published by the Department of Health in December 2017, cancer was the third biggest cause of mortality in the emirate in 2016, accounting for 15 per cent of deaths after cardiovascular disease (37 per cent) and injuries (20 per cent). We know that smoking triples the risk of cardiovascular disease and is often a direct risk factor for lung cancer as tobacco smoke is a mix of more than 4,000 chemicals, of which 250 are toxic and at least 50 are known to cause cancer.
As per the sixth edition of The Tobacco Atlas report that maps the global impact of the addictive habit, the menace of smoking killed close to 3,000 people in the UAE in 2016 and cost the country over $550 million in terms of lost productivity and healthcare costs.
The vast majority of the victims - 92 per cent - were men, but 8 per cent women also died as a result of smoking. And it says, more than 900,000 adults in the UAE use tobacco every day and smoking is responsible for one in eight deaths among men in the UAE.
Most disturbing is a UAE University study conducted in 2017 that has shown children in the UAE are taking their first puff of tobacco at an early age of nine or even at younger ages, prompting calls for households to become smoke-free to stop children from developing an addiction to nicotine.
A concerted tobacco control plan is needed for a smoke-free generation. On July 1, 2007, the smoking ban came into force across England and they have done exactly that in the last 10 years or so. One of the better ways to tackle the problem would be to open more and more smoking cessation clinics and making the avenues and opportunities to smoke less and less.
There must be a ban on smoking in buildings, restaurants, bars, parks, parking lots, factories, metro stations and all the places of public congregation. The countries that were successful in reducing the habit of smoking among its citizens have been able to do so only by making smoking more and more difficult either by increasing the price or by increasing more and more places as smoke-free-zones or both.
Smoking must be no longer a socially acceptable habit.
(Prasanth Manghat is the CEO and Executive Director of NMC Health Plc.)
angel@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE

Angel Tesorero

angel@khaleejtimes.com