Category: News This Week

The Philippines’ state-run Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has courses to help tobacco farmers and workers thrown out of their jobs because of the effects of the country’s new tobacco and alcohol regime, according to a story in The Philippines Star.

TESDA director general, Joel Villanueva, said in a statement that the agency had training programs in place for tobacco farmers and workers who were set to lose their jobs due to the expected decline in cigarette consumption caused by tax-induced higher prices.

Villanueva said TESDA had courses in place that were relevant to helping farm workers develop new skills and get their foot in the door of new jobs or livelihood opportunities.

He said the courses, related to agriculture, horticulture, agri-fisheries and food manufacturing, among others, could help farm workers shift gears without necessarily displacing them from the work they had known for many years.

President Benigno Aquino vetoed a provision in the tax reform law that would have required manufacturers to buy at least 15 per cent of their tobacco from locally-grown sources.

The requirement apparently would have been in conflict with the National Treatment on Internal Taxation and Regulation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Chile seems set to ban tobacco smoking during television programs screened while ‘children may be watching’, according to a story by Charlotte Meritan for I Love Chile.

The Chilean Senate has approved a bill changing the national smoking laws and it is now up to the Chamber of Deputies to decide.

In addition, the bill would extend the public places where smoking is banned.

And it would require tobacco manufacturers annually to inform the ministry of health about donations they have made.

China is planning to reduce the incidence of smoking in the country from 28.1 per cent, where it stood in 2010, to 25.0 per cent in 2015, according to a Bloomberg News story relayed by the TMA.

The plan, reportedly developed with the involvement of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, was published byChina’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on December 20.

It would ‘comprehensively’ ban tobacco smoking in public places and prohibit tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, but it would not require graphic warnings or tax increases.

The ban on the display of tobacco products inFinland has not reduced tobacco product sales significantly, according to Esmerk Finnish News story quoting estimates by the Finnish Grocery Trade Association, Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco.

However, there has been a trend for tobacco product sales to transfer from big supermarkets to kiosks and small shops.

The ban came into effect at the start of this year.

A ban on the sale of tobacco products from vending machines is due to come into effect at the beginning of 2015.

Y. C. Deveshwar, the chairman of ITC Ltd, has been ranked the seventh best-performing CEO in the world.

He was so ranked in the January-February issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR), which gave details of its ‘100 Best Performing CEOs in the World’.

Deveshwar ranked first amongst the Indian CEOs featured in the HBR list.

The 2013 global HBR CEO scorecard looked at how much total shareholder returns had changed over a time period from the CEO’s first day in office to August 31, 2012 (adjusted for country and industry effects), as well as the overall increase in market capitalisation.

The Indian government is considering the introduction of another tax on tobacco products and alcohol – a so-called ‘sin tax’.

According to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter, the designated sin tax would be used to finance part of the health budget during the 12^th five-year plan, 2012-2017.

The 12^th plan document, which is to be submitted to the National Development Council (NDC) presided over by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, says that the extra duty could help reduce the consumption of  tobacco and alcohol.

The NDC is scheduled to meet on December 27 to discuss the proposal.

The designation ‘sin tax’ would seem to be problematic. Questions no doubt will be raised as to who gets to decide what is and isn’t a sin (rather than a crime), something that in most places is the province of authorities that play only an advisory role in society.

But if the beliefs of these authorities are to form part of the basis of taxation policy, another question will be: What products or indeed activities will be taxed next?

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) believes that it is within theUS’ reach to create a tobacco-free generation.

This follows the publication of figures showing that smoking rates declined significantly this year among young people in all three grades interviewed during a recent survey – grades eight, 10 and 12.

But CTFK warned that ‘progress could stall and even reverse – as has happened before – without a strong, sustained commitment by national and state leaders to win this fight’.

The survey, which is conducted by researchers at theUniversityofMichigan’s Institute for Social Research, is released annually by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

For all three grades combined, the percentage who said they smoked any cigarettes in the prior 30 days fell from 11.7 per cent in 2011 to 10.6 per cent in 2012.

About 57 per cent of theNetherlands’ bars and cafés now observe the country’s ban on smoking, up from 51 per cent in the spring, according to a DutchNews story quoting health ministry inspectors.

About 61 per cent of discos and 88 per cent of cafés that serve food are now smoke free, the inspectors said.

Smoking is banned in all bars, cafés and restaurants with the exception of owner-operated bars of less than 70 square meters that don’t employ other people.

President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines yesterday signed into law a new tobacco and alcohol tax regime that is expected to raise an additional P33.96 billion during the first year of its implementation, according to a story in The Manila Times.

Of the total additional revenue, P23.40 billion is set to come from cigarettes and P10.56 from alcohol.

In speaking about the new regime, the president sought to reassure nervous tobacco farmers who believe that many growers will be put out of work by the new regime.

Aquino said the new law was an early Christmas gift for Filipinos because its revenues would be used to expand the government’s healthcare program and to provide additional funding for a farmers’ livelihood support program.

Hungary’s government has published a tender for the retail sale of tobacco, according to an EcoNews story quoting Zsolt Gyulay, chief executive of the National Tobacco Trade Nonprofit.

Gyulay told a press conference thatHungary’s parliament had approved a law in September that established a state monopoly over the retail sale of tobacco products from next July.

So the tender was for concessions to sell tobacco products in shops and retail outlets. The deadline for submitting tender bids is February 13, and the government is due to assess the bids within 30 days.