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Cigarette excise revenue should be channeled through healthcare services: Lawmaker
The majority of revenue the government may reap from the proposed cigarette excise increase should be used to improve prevention-centered programs and healthcare services for people with smoking-related health problems, a lawmaker said.
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Workers pack cigarettes at a factory in Surabaya, East Java, recently. (thejakartapost.com/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
T
he majority of revenue the government reaps from the proposed cigarette excise increase should be used to improve prevention-centered programs and healthcare services for people with smoking-related health problems, a lawmaker said.
“As we know, Indonesia’s cigarette excise revenue amounts to almost Rp 140 trillion [US$10.5 billion] now, and if it increases, especially because of the cigarette excise increase currently debated by all elements of society, the government should allocate more of the revenues to healthcare services,” Dede Yusuf, chairman of House Commission IX overseeing health and labor affairs, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
In its recent survey on cigarette prices, the University of Indonesia’s (UI) Center for Health Economics and Policy Studies found that around three-quarters of 1,000 respondents, including smokers, agreed cigarette prices should be increased to up to Rp 50,000 per pack. They also agreed the excise revenues should be used to fund the national health insurance (JKN) program.
It was earlier reported that as of April, the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) had suffered from Rp 7 trillion worth of losses from the JKN program.
In Indonesia, cigarettes are priced within a range of between Rp 12,000 to Rp 20,000 per pack. Cigarette tax revenues collected amounted to Rp 139.5 trillion in 2015.
However, Dede said, the use of the tax revenues had not been prioritized to fund and improve healthcare services in the country. With such huge revenues, he said, the government should be able to allocate more funds to improve community healthcare centers (Puskesmas) and dispatch more health workers to disadvantaged and outermost areas. (wnd/ebf)
