Indonesia to Increase Tobacco Tax by 12.5%

Source from:  Tobacco reporter 12/18/2020

The 12.5% increase in tobacco excise tax was recently announced by Indonesia’s finance minister Sri Mulyani, who said that it will be effective as of February 2021.

The availability of single cigarettes is partly to blame for the local high smoking rates.However, the Tobacco Control Support Center and the Association of Indonesian Public Health Experts (TCSC-IAKMI) said that more measures need to be set in place in order to discourage smoking in the country.
TCSC-IAKMI chairperson, Sumarjati Arjososaid, said that the tax needs to be increased further and that single-cigarette sales must be banned. “Smoking can only be reduced by increasing cigarette excise tax up to 25%, raising the retail price by 57%, and banning the sales of single cigarettes,” she said.

Ede Surya Darmawan, the chairperson of IAKMI, concurred. “This is mostly because single cigarettes are sold as cheaply as 14 cents each,” she said, pointing out that the availability of single cigarettes is partly to blame for the local high smoking rates.

She also pointed out that more needs to be done to enforce existing regulations. “Indonesia’s laws state that cigarettes can only be sold to and consumed by adults aged 18 and above, but there are no penalties for retailers who sell them to youngsters.”