Category: News This Week

Higher cigarette taxes may be hurtingNew York’s low-income smokers financially rather than making them more likely to quit, according to an ABC report quoting the results of a new survey by researchers at RTI International.

The survey, which looked at more than 13,000 people living in New York state, found that some lower-income smokers spent nearly a quarter of their household incomes on cigarettes compared with the average two per cent spent by wealthier smokers.

The national average spent by lower-income smokers – those with a household income under $25,000 a year – was 14 per cent.

New Yorkcarries a considerably higher excise tax than do other states – $4.35 a pack compared with the national average of $1.46 a pack.

But even with the higher taxes, the state has not seen a decline in the number of lower-income smokers over the last decade, according to RTI, a non-profit research group that received funding from the New York State Department of Health for the survey.

“Excise taxes are effective in changing smokers’ behavior,” Matthew Farrelly, chief scientist and senior director of RTI’s public health policy research program, and study author, said in a statement. “But not all smokers are able to quit, and low-income smokers are disproportionately burdened by these taxes.”

Philip Morris (Malaysia) is to invest RM70 million at its Seremban tobacco processing plant to double its capacity, according to a Bernama News story relayed by the TMA and quoting the company’s managing director, Tarkan Demirbas.

But it is to discontinue cigarette manufacturing inMalaysiaprimarily due to increasing costs and the country’s high levels of smuggling.

Demirbas said the company would import all its cigarettes for sale on the domestic market as of the second quarter of next year, subject to its having obtained all of the necessary regulatory approvals.

About 220 full-time workers of the company will lose their jobs because of the restructuring exercise, he added.

In a unanimous vote, the Rwandan Senate last week passed a tobacco control bill first tabled in parliament on June 10, 2010, according to a story in The New Times.

The bill prohibits tobacco smoking in enclosed public places, including restaurants and bars, though the owners and managers of those venues may provide smoking areas provided that non-smokers are not inconvenienced.

The bill bans tobacco advertising through sponsorships.

And it obliges any one seeking to grow tobacco on more than half a hectare of land to obtain a license from the government.

Tobacco farmers from North Darfur, Sudan, have asked the Islamic Fiqh Academy to find them an alternative livelihood following its prohibition of tobacco sales, according to a Radio Dabanga report.

The farmers were quoted as saying that four million people inDarfur were dependent on the cultivation and sale of tobacco.

They claimed that tobacco had been produced in the region since 1850.

The European Commission has been asked whether or not it is to include in its proposal for the revision of the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive manufacturer liability for the financing of all health care costs arising from tobacco consumption.

The proposed revisions are due to be made public before the end of the year.

In a preamble to a number of written parliamentary questions, Karl-Heinz Florenz, of the European People’s Party grouping, said that in its 2007 resolution on the green paper, ‘Towards a Europe free from tobacco smoke: policy options at EU level’, the European parliament had demanded the application of product liability in respect of manufacturers and the introduction of manufacturer liability for the financing of all health costs arising from tobacco consumption.

‘Will the Commission proposal for a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive take up the above-mentioned demand made by the European Parliament?,’ he asked. ‘If so, in what form? If not, why not?

‘If manufacturer responsibility does not form part of the new proposal expected in November, will it be introduced in another context (e.g. at a later time or in another Commission legislative proposal)?’

Two Bulgarian MPs tabled on September 28 a bill of amendments to the Health Act that would repeal the country’s ban on tobacco smoking in indoor public spaces and certain outdoor areas, according to a Sofia Globe story.

The ban went into effect on June 1.

The bill’s authors, Kiril Goumnerov and Stoyan Ivanov, who are not affiliated to any parliamentary group, said they wanted a return to the regulatory position that existed before the introduction of the ban whereby all establishments bigger than 70 square meters had to have separate smoking and non-smoking areas, while smaller establishments had the choice of being either fully-smoking or non-smoking.

Under the bill, night clubs would be smoking establishments, regardless of their size, but they would not be allowed to give entry to underage customers.

If the bill were to pass, the MPs plan to follow it up with another set of amendments that would increase taxes on smoking establishments while lowering them for non-smoking ones.

They also want it written into law that all tobacco and cigarette excise duties are spent on health care.

Karnataka’s flue cured prices touched Rs140 per kg, a record high, on the first day of auctions, according to a story in The Hindu published on Friday.

“This is an all-time high in the history of tobacco auctions in Karnataka,” the chairman of the Tobacco Board, G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, was quoted as saying. “The main reason is strong global demand for tobacco grown in light soil.”

“In Andhra Pradesh, a similar trend is prevailing – strong demand and prices firming up – for crop grown in light soil.”

But the high prices in Karnataka were due also to the fact that the area planted to tobacco, at 94,000 ha, was down by more than 11 per cent on that of the previous season.

In all, 288 bales or 34,358 kg of tobacco was offered at Karnataka’s 11 auction platforms during the first day of sales, and all of it was sold – for an average price of Rs139.49 per kg.”

Japan Tobacco International is expected to ask theUK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to refund a £50.3 million fine imposed on Gallaher following allegations that it was involved in a price-fixing cartel, according to an Electronic Telegraph story.

In 2010, the OFT fined a number of tobacco companies and retailers a total of £225 million for ‘unlawful practices’ and inflating the prices of cigarettes.

Gallaher, which was bought by JTI in 2007, was among several of the accused companies that chose to pay the fines to avoid a costly and lengthy legal process.

But six of the companies, including Imperial Tobacco, Asda, and the Co-operative Group, chose to appeal against the penalty.

This challenge was successful when, last year, the OFT’s ruling against the six companies was quashed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Earlier this year, Martin McColl, a chain of neighbourhood convenience stores, secured a £2.6 million refund from the OFT, despite not having appealed against the ruling itself, and JTI is said to be considering the situation carefully.

Tobacco growers belonging to the Philippine Tobacco Growers Association (PTGA) are urging President Aquino not to agree to proposed guidelines of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

PTGA vice president, Asuncion M. Lopez, said the proposed guidelines that had been recommended for adoption by the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the FCTC would “devastate” the livelihoods of tobacco farmers.

The fifth session of the CoP is due to be held atSeoul,South   Korea, starting on November 12.

“Bureaucrats with no real farming experience are actually trying to mandate the seasons when tobacco can and cannot be grown,” said Lopez during the media launch of the ‘Save our Farms’ campaign, which was held in Manilaon Tuesday.

The campaign is being spearheaded by theAsiachapter of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA).

Lopez, who is also a spokesperson for the ITGA, said the proposed guidelines, relating to Articles 17 and 18 of the FCTC, represented a real threat for tobacco- producing communities,” said Lopez, who is also a spokesperson for the ITGA.

The PTGA estimates that about 2.7 million people depend on the local tobacco industry.

Chinais expected this year to approve imports of tobacco from the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Paraná, according to a Macau Hub story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

The director of the Vegetable Hygiene Department of the Brazilian Ministry for Agriculture, Livestock and Supplies, Cósam Coutinho, said on Wednesday that the exports were expected to be approved by Chinese health and hygiene authorities.

At a meeting of the Tobacco Sector Chamber held in Brasilia, Coutinho said that the results of laboratory tests on the tobacco in the two states were similar to those of tobacco produced in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which already exports to China.

“China is interested in the tobacco leaves from the southern region of Brazil, and so the states of Santa Catarina and Paraná are expected to be authorised to export tobacco following a visit by a mission of the Chinese health authorities due to take place this year,” he said.

It was announced at the end of August that an agreement had been signed that would provide for the export of leaf tobacco from the Brazilian states of Alagoas and Bahia toChina.

The agreement, which followed official recognition that Alagoas and Bahia were free from the fungus that causes blue mould disease in tobacco, was said to make way for the annual export of US$200 million of leaf tobacco and the creation of 50,000 jobs inBahia.