Tobacco fund will be part paid for out of tobacco company profits

// Laos has joined the ranks of Asean nations that have set up a fund to control tobacco usage, according to a story in the Bangkok Post.

Dr. Prakit Vathesatogkit, the secretary general of the International Network of Health Promotion Foundations, said on Wednesday that the Lao cabinet had established a tobacco control fund that would receive a contribution of two per cent of tobacco companies’ profits and the revenue from a Kip200 per pack price increase.

Prakit said Laos was the fifth Asean member to establish such a fund after Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

But similar funds have been set up in other Asian countries: South Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan.

Tobacco control funds are said rarely to be used to cover other government expenditure.