Campaigners want a consumer-focused tobacco bill not a business-focused bill

Indonesia’s National Commission on Tobacco Control (KNPT) has called on the House of Representatives to draft a new bill aimed at protecting consumers from the adverse impacts of tobacco, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

The commission wants the House to drop plans for the tobacco bill that is already scheduled for inclusion in this year’s legislative program.

Speaking during a meeting with the House Legislative Body on Wednesday, KNPT commissioner, Hakim Sorimuda Pohan, said the country already had a number of regulations on tobacco production and trading, but lacked regulations that could mitigate the impacts of smoking on the country’s more than 60 million smokers.

The House has previously rejected two bills aimed at tackling the negative impacts of tobacco.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation believes that the current bill was given the go-ahead as a result of intense lobbying by the Indonesian Tobacco Society Alliance in an attempt to protect the nation’s tobacco industry.

On Wednesday, tobacco farmers staged a protest demanding that the House continue deliberating the bill, arguing that it would protect them from the global anti-smoking campaign.