UN: tobacco tax essential for social development, economic health

Member states of the United Nations have adopted a Political Declaration committing governments to speed up implementation of a tough framework convention on tobacco control as a means to curb diseases.

At the UN High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), member states affirmed support for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and vowed to encourage countries, which have not yet done so, to consider acceding to the FCTC.

Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) director Bungon Ritthiphakdee, speaking from the UN General Assembly in New York City, reported that the Declaration acknowledged the special contribution of reducing tobacco consumption in the effort to reduce NCDs. The Declaration also noted the role of price and tax measures in cutting tobacco consumption.

Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, said in her address to the UN General Assembly, “Full implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control would bring the single biggest blow to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and respiratory disease. In terms of demand reduction, increases in tobacco taxes and prices are the most effective measure. They not only protect health. They bring in considerable revenue.”

According to a recent World Economic Forum and Harvard University study, NCDs will cost the global economy over the next 20 years a staggering US$ 30 trillion, representing 48 percent of global GDP in 2010. NCDs can thus “break the bank” of even the wealthiest nations, said Dr. Chan.

According to Ms. Ritthiphakdee, the High-Level Meeting on NCDs provides an excellent opportunity for public health and tobacco- control advocates in all countries to reiterate the triple benefit of higher tobacco taxes: lives saved, healthcare savings, and higher government revenues.

Smoking prevalence in Indonesia (34 percent) and the Philippines (28.3 percent) are currently among the highest in the world. Not coincidentally, they also have some of the lowest tobacco tax rates and the cheapest tobacco products in the world. But Southeast Asia is also home to some of the most compelling proofs of the effectiveness of raising tobacco taxes.

“In ASEAN countries such as Thailand, which has increased tobacco taxes nine times from 1994-2010 (current excise rate is 85 percent), smoking prevalence among youths and the poor decreased more than 50 percent,” said Ritthiphakdee.