Concern about TTM reforms

Anti-tobacco activists in Thailand are urging the government to reconsider plans to relax its control of the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM), reports The Bangkok Post.

In December, the cabinet approved a bill that would transform the TTM from a state enterprise under the finance ministry into the Tobacco Authority of Thailand, a juristic entity with the flexibility to conduct transactions.

The activists fear the bill might allow international tobacco firms to gain control of the company and so increase cigarette sales.

The bill allows foreigners to hold up to 49 percent of the shares in a company or a public firm producing tobacco. All plans to establish a tobacco company with foreign shareholding must be approved by the cabinet first.

Suchada Tangthantham, an economist at the Thailand Health Promotion Institute, cited a World Health Organization report suggesting that the economic losses associated with cigarette smoking surpass the income that each nation earns from the tobacco industry.