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Cigarette production up in spite of lesser firms, workers
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A worker collects cigarettes at a factory in Surabaya, East Java. The Industry Ministry claims cigarette production has not been affected by dwindling figures of manufacturers and workers in the tobacco industry in the past years. (thejakartapost.com/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
D
espite a declining number of cigarette firms and workers, Indonesia’s tobacco industry has managed to raise its cigarette production, Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto has said.
The figure of cigarette manufacturers fell by 16.7 percent from 2014 to 600 in 2016. In contrast, production climbed slightly by 0.5 percent from 2014 to 348.2 billion cigarettes in 2015 and by 1.1 percent to 350.03 billion cigarettes in 2016.
“The workforce in the cigarette manufacturing sector has decreased by 3.5 percent and in the tobacco plantation sector has dropped by 4.7 percent in the past five years,” Airlangga said in a statement after visiting Indonesian Cigarette Workers Community (MPSI) in Sukorejo district, Pasuruan regency, East Java, on Thursday.
Workforce in the manufacturing and distribution sector totaled 4.28 million, while those in the plantation sector stood at 1.7 million last year, according to the ministry.
(Read also: Court puts end to tobacco expansion plan)
Airlangga attributed the downturn in the tobacco industry to the changing lifestyle of smokers who increasingly prefer low tar and nicotine cigarettes, and therefore pick machine-rolled clove cigarettes (SKM).
The tobacco industry paid Rp 138.69 trillion (US$10.37 billion) in excise tax to the state coffer, representing 96.65 percent of overall excise revenue.
Health concerns are mounting in Indonesia, which ranks fourth on the list of countries with the most smokers, and anti-tobacco campaigns have started to gain ground. However, a tobacco bill, set for deliberation by the House of Representatives, justifies tripling cigarette production to 524 billion by 2020. (lnd)
