August 6, 2008 - The cabinet yesterday approved draft amendments of four acts -- the Liquor Act, Excise Tax Act, Excise Tariff Act and Tobacco Act -- under which ex-factory prices would be clarified to make it easier for calculating taxes.Taxes on tobacco, currently levied at 80 percent, would be raised to 90 percent if the new legislation takes effect.
As we know, tobacco taxes are probably the single most cost-effective intervention for adult health in the world. A tripling of the excise tax would roughly double the price of cigarettes (as has happened in New York City), preventing about three million deaths per year by 2030. (Tobacco tax can prevent certain death (A global killer is ripping through the world's poorer countries largely unchecked), Professor Prabhat Jha, Bangkok's Independent Newspaper 1/2/2008.
Thailand has adopted the toughest tobacco controls of any developing country. Among its main initiatives were mandatory pack warnings detailing the negative impact that smoking has on health, a ban on the advertising of cigarettes brands at point-of-sale locations, an increase in excise tax on tobacco products and the
banning of smoking in more public places. All of this have contributed to the downward trend in cigarettes consumption in Thailand.
Reference: 'Sin Taxes' Could Rise: Liquor and Tobacco Valuations Reviewed by Chatrudee Theparat & Woranuj Maneerungsee, Bangkok Post, 8/6/2008.
Thailand has ratified the
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Treaty.
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