In less than two months,
smokers indulging in Cambodia’s inexpensive cigarettes will have to reach a
little deeper into their wallets. Starting in July, the tax on cigarettes will
jump from 20% to 30% of the retail price, with a tax base rise from 65% to 85%.
But one advocacy group said the increase would not be enough of a disincentive
to encourage smokers to quit or to stop others taking up the habit.
Just last week, the Southeast
Asia Tobacco Control Alliance called Cambodian cigarettes “dangerously cheap”.
A report last year found that Cambodia had the second-lowest taxation rate in
ASEAN after Laos. At $0.58 a pack, popular local cigarette brands in Cambodia
and the Philippines have some of the lowest prices in the world. That price
could go up to about $0.64, if factoring in the 10% tax hike. Mom Kong,
executive director of NGO Cambodian Movement for Health said increasing taxes
will mean higher prices and consumption will decline. A 2011 World Health
Organization report found that nearly 10,000 people die each year from
tobacco-related diseases in Cambodia.
An industry group had a
different view. Any tax increase will have an impact. The price of the product
as a whole will go up, and if the price increases, then sales will probably go
down, and the revenues for tobacco companies will decrease.
Source:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia%E2%80%99s-tobacco-tax-go-slightly
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