Jakarta, Aug 25 (Antara) - Instead of damaging your lungs with smoke and increasing cancer risk, the citizens should utilize the money to increase the nutritional intake of their families and help improve the quality of human resources.
The answer to this problem is probably most sought by various circles from the health sector and the younger generation that have, so far, called on the government to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty.
It is clear that the treaty will harm the interests of the tobacco industries and tobacco farmers, and they along with the smokers have jointly opposed it. Hence, the government's recent idea to significantly hike the price of cigarettes has immediately sparked positive and negative reactions.
While targeting to boost state revenues from cigarette taxes, the idea is also aimed at reducing the number of smokers. However, only time will tell if implementing the idea to hike cigarette prices will reduce the number of smokers while simultaneously increasing tax receipts from cigarette sales.
Several families still live under the poverty line and suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and any idea to prevent people from becoming addicted smokers deserves acclaim.
Indonesia needs to develop its human resources, so it can stand on an equal footing and compete with other countries in the era of globalization. This could be achieved only with healthy and good-quality human resources.
Smoking has a direct impact on the public's health and leads to the emergence of social ills, such as drug addiction, alcoholism, and violence. The total cost of treatment of tobacco-related diseases and deaths are higher than the total amount of receipts from tobacco and cigarette taxes.
A study conducted in 2004 revealed that the government had spent Rp127 trillion in 2001 on the treatment of tobacco-related diseases, while cigarette taxes collected in the same year amounted to only Rp16 trillion.
Hence, instead of ruining health by smoking, the money can be utilized to improve the people's nutritional intake and enhance the quality of human resources.
According to legislator Okkey Asokawati of Commission IX on health affairs of the House of Representatives, if the prices of cigarettes are drastically increased, it would help improve the quality of the country's human resources.
High cigarette prices would discourage people from smoking, thus money can be used to improve their health. The money, so far, used for the treatment of tobacco-related diseases could instead be spent to increase the nutritional intake of families.
"Moreover, in the era of globalization, good-quality human resources are needed to compete with other countries," Asokawati noted in a written statement in Jakarta on Wednesday.
A survey revealed that fathers in several poor families in the country spent more money on cigarettes than on nutritious foods for their children, Asokawati pointed out.
Besides this, the increase in cigarette prices will raise the state income in the form of cigarette tax that can be used to increase the budget for improving the welfare of people, including laborers and tobacco farmers.
Deputy Chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly Oesman Sapta lauded and hailed the idea to raise the prices of cigarettes, as if the policy was implemented, it could restrict the younger generation from taking up smoking.
The high price of cigarettes will lead the youth to think twice before deciding whether to buy cigarettes, let alone if they belong to poor families. Thus, it is expected that the number of first-time smokers would be reduced in future.
The price hike will also have an impact on the tobacco farmers, thus they will enjoy the benefits of the policy, he added.
The government is raising the idea to increase prices up to about Rp50,000 (US$3.76) per pack. The normal prices of cigarettes currently range from Rp15,000 to Rp25,000 (US$1.13 - US$1.88) per pack.
This means that a smoker who consumes one pack of cigarettes a day would spend some Rp1.5 million per month for cigarettes, a price which is higher than the workers' monthly basic wage of Rp1.4 million in West Nusa Tenggara Province.
Cigarettes/tobacco taxes contribute a large portion to the country's state receipts. They contributed Rp139.5 trillion in taxes to the state in 2015, or about 7.9 percent of the state revenues set at 1,761.6 trillion in the revised 2015 state budget.
House Speaker Ade Komarudin said the state revenues in the state budget from the excise sector will increase if the government raised cigarette prices.
"It will automatically increase state revenues from the excise sector if the price of cigarettes is increased. It means it will help make the state budget healthier in the future," said Ade Komarudin in Jakarta on Saturday.
However, Agro-Industry Director General of the Ministry of Industry Panggah Susanto stated in Jakarta the discourse on the idea of significantly raising the price of cigarettes to Rp50 thousand (US$3.76) per pack needs further evaluation.
"The proposed idea is still a one-sided view of the Community Health Faculty of the University of Indonesia (FKMUI). I heard it is conducting a study but had yet to cover several aspects in its study," Panggah Susanto said in Jakarta Wednesday.
The FKMUI simply concluded that raising the price of cigarettes drastically will reduce cigarette consumption, while the state revenue target from cigarette taxes would still be achieved.
If the cigarette prices are raised, FKMUI believes the consumption will drop while the revenue target will still be achieved. It did not calculate that if the price is raised too high, it will reduce consumption drastically as well.
Hence, the government will fail to achieve its state revenue target. Moreover, the significant price hike will also affect the national cigarette industries, particularly small-scale cigarette industries (IKM).
According to Susanto, the IKM will close down. Moreover, the number of IKM industries had been declining this year. Large industries will take significant steps to increase efficiency and replace their workers with machines or technology.
Of the 2.6 thousand cigarette industries in 2010, only 600, including the IKMs, still survive now. Large industries will, therefore, adopt measures to improve efficiency.***4***(a014/INE)EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/A. Abdussalam) 25-08-2016 17:57: |
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