The World Health Organization on Tuesday urgedCambodiato increase taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products in order to raise state revenues and discourage smokers, according to a Xinhua Newswire story.
“Increasing tobacco tax will reduce consumption especially among the higher prevalence groups such as low-income and uneducated groups,” said Ayda A. Yurekli, co-ordinator for the WHO Tobacco Control Economics Unit, during a press briefing after a two-day, tobacco-taxation workshop in Phnom Penh.
She said that if the government increased tobacco tax by 10 per cent, smoking prevalence would fall by between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent.
Speaking at the workshop, Hang Chuon Naron, secretary of state at the Cambodian Finance Ministry, said the government was considering increasing tobacco tax.
He said thatCambodia, with a 10 per cent tax on tobacco, was the country with the lowest tobacco tax.