China''s Cigarette Sales Tumble

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 06/30/2016

Cigarette sales in China were down by 11.7 percent during the five months January-May, when compared to those of the first five months of 2015, according to a story in the South China Post relayed by the TMA.

Citing data released yesterday by the country's National Bureau of Statistics, the Post reported also that industry profits were down by 24 percent during the same period.

In May, Ling Chengxing, head of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA), vowed to revive the industry and increase its tax contributions by more than seven percent during 2016.

After a difficult 2015, the STMA aimed to increase its payments to the government coffers at a rate above the country's economic growth, its website said.

Last year, cigarette sales declined by 2.36 percent, reversing years of growth.

Nevertheless, the industry last year generated around 1.1 trillion yuan (US$165.5 billion) in profit and tax revenue, up 8.7 percent from that of 2014.

Tobacco control advocate Yang Gonghuan attributed the fall in sales during the first five months of this year to President Xi Jinping's crackdown on extravagance and the May 2015 increase in wholesale taxes. Enditem