Raise tobacco tax to save lives in China
- By Bernhard Schwartlander and Bert Hofman
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E-mail China Daily, December 25, 2015
In May 2015, China's Ministry of Finance announced an increase in tobacco taxation, of 0.005 renminbi per individual cigarette, alongside an increase in the wholesale tax rate. Importantly, this tax increase is flowing onto retail prices - making cigarettes a little more expensive across China as a result.
This tax increase adopted by the government of China, in line with its commitment to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, is an important step in the right direction. However, it is only one step. As the recently released 2015 WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic points out, tobacco taxes must be increased regularly in order to reduce tobacco use. Otherwise, if incomes rise more quickly than inflation, the relative cost of tobacco products can actually decrease over time.
This has been the case in China over the last decade as the economy has grown, incomes have increased, and tobacco products have become more affordable. Compared with the progress made in other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, China is lagging behind in raising tobacco taxes.
Higher tobacco taxes not only help smokers quit, but crucially they also prevent the next generation from taking up smoking in the first place. The vast majority of smokers start smoking when they are young. Higher tobacco taxes make cigarettes much less affordable for teenagers, helping to protect the coming generations from tobacco disease and death.
If tobacco control measures are not strengthened with steeper tobacco tax increases, China's non-communicable disease epidemic will continue to explode over the next 20 years. This really has the potential to undermine the Chinese government's agenda for harmonious and human-centred development, particularly by aggravating health inequities.
The WHO and the World Bank Group stand ready to support the government of China in advancing the tobacco taxation agenda. A healthy future for China depends on it.
Bernhard Schwartlander is WHO China representative, and Bert Hofman is World Bank's country director for China, Mongolia and South Korea.
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