Tag: Peru

  • Peru Squeezes Big Tobacco

    Peru Squeezes Big Tobacco

    Photo: Amparo Garcia

    Peru’s Congress has approved a tobacco control law that health advocates say will save lives.

    The new legislation not only bans tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, but also expands the size of mandatory pictorial health warning labels on tobacco products, including cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs). In addition, the law prohibits the use of tobacco and e-cigarettes in many public spaces.

    Anti-tobacco activists welcomed the new legislation, and encouraged the executive branch to quickly sign it into law. “Peru’s new tobacco control regulations must be swiftly enacted and strongly enforced to ensure that these crucial public health measures can save as many lives as possible,” said Patricia Sosa, director of Latin America Programs at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a statement.

    Peru is a party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which obligates the country to implement measures to address tobacco use. Such measures include smoke-free public places, warning labels on tobacco products, increased tobacco taxes and restrictions on tobacco advertising.

    While lauding Peru’s new legislation, Sosa said that  additional protections are needed to address gaps in the new law. She noted that warning labels on e-cigarettes are text-only and smaller than those on combustible cigarettes, while advertising restrictions are not as comprehensive.

    “More robust regulation of these addictive products is essential to protect public health, especially younger generations—particularly given how tobacco and e-cigarette companies market these products to young people in Peru and around the world,” said Sosa.

  • Tax link questioned

    Tax link questioned

    Claims by the tobacco industry of a positive association between price/tax changes in respect of tobacco products and the illegal trade in those products are unsubstantiated, according to an article by Guillermo Paraje, PhD for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press.
    An abstract of the piece, Illicit Cigarette Trade in Five South American Countries: A Gap Analysis for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru, concludes that using simple statistical methods, ‘it is possible to assess the trend in tobacco illicit trend over time to better inform policy-makers’. ‘Getting reliable and regular population consumption surveys can also help to track tobacco illicit trade,’ the conclusion states. ‘Claims by tobacco industry of a positive association between price/tax changes and illicit trade are unsubstantiated.’
    Under the heading Implications, the abstract says, in part, that the evolution of ‘cigarette illicit trade in five Latin American countries show different trajectories, not in line with tobacco industry estimates, which highlight the importance of producing solid, independent estimates’.
    ‘There are inexpensive methodologies that can provide estimates of the evolution of the relative importance of illicit trade and can be used to inform policy-makers.’

  • Peru increasing taxes

    Peru increasing taxes

    Peru’s government has increased excise taxes on cigarettes, sugary drinks, alcohol and polluting cars in a bid to tackle public health problems linked to obesity and cancer, while shoring up public resources, according to a Reuters report.
    The finance ministry said the tax on cigarettes would rise to 0.27 sol ($0.08) from 0.18 sol each.
    The National Society of Industries, a manufacturing association, warned the tax increases would lead to more contraband and pirated goods.
    But the government of President Martin Vizcarra, who took office in March, promised to be vigilant in the face of attempts to evade the new taxes.
    Addressing the impacts of non-communicable diseases associated with smoking, drinking, obesity and pollution each year cost Peru $24 billion, or about 11 percent of GDP, the finance ministry said, citing a study from Harvard University.
    Government spending on health care in Peru was about 3.7 percent of GDP, the ministry added.
    Vizcarra’s government said also that it would eliminate some tax exemptions following three straight years of declines in tax revenues caused by a slowdown in economic growth.