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Jakarta Post

House presses ahead with tobacco bill despite concern

Concerned about the role of the tobacco industry in the country’s economy, the House of Representatives will press ahead with its deliberation of the controversial bill on tobacco

Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, November 28, 2013

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House presses ahead with tobacco bill despite concern

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oncerned about the role of the tobacco industry in the country'€™s economy, the House of Representatives will press ahead with its deliberation of the controversial bill on tobacco.

The move comes despite the government'€™s commitment to adopting the international treaty on tobacco control. The House'€™s Legislative Body (Baleg), which is tasked with deliberating the bill, insisted that the government'€™s plan to accede to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) would not affect the bill'€™s deliberation.

'€œWe will not cancel the deliberation because of the government'€™s plan to ratify it [FCTC]. Having said that, we will write to the Health Minister to discuss this issue so that we can match the draft bill with the treaty,'€ Baleg deputy chairman Sunardi Ayub from the People'€™s Conscience Party (Hanura) said on the sidelines of a hearing with tobacco companies on Wednesday.

He said that Baleg would carry on with the deliberation with or without the endorsement of the FCTC.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said that Indonesia aimed to accede to the FCTC by the end of this year to support the fight against rampant smoking in the country, a move that has been opposed by the Trade, Industry and the Manpower and Transmigration ministries.

The three ministries argued that the accession would hurt tobacco farmers and reduce the state'€™s income from tobacco excise that makes a substantial contribution to the state budget.

Data from the customs and excise office said that as of July tobacco duties had contributed 95.97 percent of the total Rp 61.22 trillion revenue from excise, or Rp 58.75 trillion.

Last year, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey showed that 60 million people or around 34.8 percent of all Indonesian adults were active smokers, making it one of the largest cigarette markets in the world.

According to the Health Ministry, the government spends more than around Rp 40 trillion on treating cigarette-related illness every year.

Data from the ministry showed that around 260,000 Indonesians died from tobacco-related illnesses last year, about 25,000 of them from secondhand smoke.

During Wednesday'€™s hearing, representatives from tobacco companies warned lawmakers that attempts to control tobacco production and distribution in the country would not reduce demand but would only hurt the state'€™s revenue as well as the welfare of tobacco farmers and cigarette factory workers. '€œIt will only encourage an illegal market in tobacco that will have an impact on many sectors including employment,'€ Zulfikar of PT Bentoel said.

He called on the House to expedite the deliberation of the bill. '€œWe suggest the House speed up the deliberation of the bill if the government truly aims to accede to the FCTC by the end of this year.'€

Because of the controversy surrounding the deliberation, Baleg had earlier held similar meetings with the Indonesian Tobacco Society Alliance (AMTI) and the National Commission on Tobacco Control (KNPT) during which both urged lawmakers to propose stricter tobacco control.

In February the KNPT told lawmakers that although the country had a number of regulations on tobacco production and trading, it lacked regulations that could mitigate the impact on the large number of smokers.

In 2009, House'€™s Commission IX on health and welfare affairs proposed a bill on the impact of tobacco products.

Baleg rejected the bill, citing the major socioeconomic implications of the bill for many citizens, particularly tobacco farmers.

In 2011, the commission revised the bill and proposed it under a new name: the bill on public health protection from the threat of cigarettes and similar products.

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