Need to increase special consumption tax on tobacco

According to Mr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment, Ministry of Health, there must be solutions to promote prevention and control of tobacco harms to protect people's health, especially young people, and reduce economic burden.

Cần tăng thuế tiêu thụ đặc biệt đối với thuốc lá

Experts say that smoking has unpredictable harmful effects on health, creating an economic burden for families and society. (Photo: Thu Trang)

This morning (May 23), a workshop on providing information on tobacco harm prevention and control took place in Hanoi. The event was organized by the Legal Department (Ministry of Information and Communications) in coordination with HealthBridge Vietnam. This is also an activity in response to World No Tobacco Day (May 31) and National No Tobacco Week (May 25-31).

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment, Ministry of Health; Director of the Fund for Prevention of Tobacco Harms, said that smoking has unpredictable harmful effects on health, creating an economic burden for families and society.

Therefore, it is necessary to have solutions to promote the prevention and control of tobacco harms to protect people's health, especially adolescents, the future young generation of the country, and reduce economic burden.

Mr. Luong Ngoc Khue emphasized: "One of the main reasons for the high and slow decline in smoking rates is that Vietnam's tobacco tax is still very low. Cheap tobacco prices increase the ability of young people and the poor to access and buy tobacco. In addition, new products such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products have appeared on the market..."

At the same time, according to Mr. Khue, cigarettes in general and e-cigarettes in particular contain addictive nicotine, which can harm the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of the smoker and those around them.

According to the report of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, up to 70-75% of patients coming to medical examination and treatment facilities are related to non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure, metabolic disorders, blood fat, cholesterol, stroke, cardiovascular disease. Departments, cancer rooms, cardiovascular and respiratory hospitals are overloaded. One of the main causes of these diseases is tobacco.

Therefore, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that we continue to fight these diseases, considering tobacco harm prevention as a responsibility to ourselves and the community.

According to the WHO 2020 study on adolescent health in the 13-17 age group, the rate of e-cigarette smoking is 2.6%. In particular, the trend of using e-cigarettes is highly concentrated in the 15-24 age group with a rate of 7.3% compared to the 25-44 age groups (3.2%), 45-64 (1.4%).

Many experts say that it is necessary to study increasing tobacco consumption tax to limit the current easy use of tobacco.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, representative of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Fund, electronic cigarettes contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance. Meanwhile, new tobacco products have a high potential risk of causing and generating social evils, especially the use of drugs and addictive substances.

Notably, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products increase the rate of conventional cigarette use, especially among children, adolescents, women and girls.

To reduce tobacco use in Vietnam, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong proposed and supported increasing tobacco taxes, banning advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and widely communicating to people through mass media. In particular, the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms, the Law on Advertising, and the Law on Commerce clearly stipulate the prohibition of advertising, promotion, and direct marketing of tobacco to consumers in all forms.

Speaking at the workshop, Dr. Nguyen Tuan Lam (WHO expert in Vietnam) said that cigarette prices in Vietnam are very cheap (ranked 157/161 countries with reported data in 2020), easily accessible to adolescents and low-income people. In addition, the designs of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products are often eye-catching, targeting young customers, and are easily bought and sold, making them difficult to control.

According to Dr. Lam, increasing excise tax on cigarettes has the effect of reducing cigarette purchasing power, limiting young people's access to cheap cigarettes. Tax and price are low-cost but highly effective solutions to reduce tobacco consumption and are effective disease prevention solutions that have been recommended by WHO and the World Bank (WB) for countries to apply.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Nguyen Thi An, Director of HealthBridge Vietnam, said that it is necessary to strengthen the enforcement of the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms. At the same time, step up inspection and examination; strictly handle violations, focusing on handling violations of smoking-free areas, violations of advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and trading of smuggled tobacco products.

In addition, it is necessary to increase the special consumption tax on tobacco. In addition, it is necessary to issue a policy to ban the circulation of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products in Vietnam according to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health and WHO.

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