Follow
Officials from the Chinese Government have stated that the taxes on cigarettes may increase in their country to determine smokers to quit this habit and improve the quality of life for the people, smokers and non smokers alike.
Reports show that in China there are more than 300 million smokers that may have to stop smoking after taxes will increase for tobacco products. The National Health and Planning Commission in China issued a statement, that they will join with other government agencies to take advantage of this opportunity and raise tobacco taxes, through the spokesman Yao Hongwen.
Officials say that even if tobacco taxes were raised five years ago in China, this increase in prices did not have the effect desired to determine people to quit smoking because of the tobacco companies that absorbed the taxes increase. This increase in taxes on tobacco products was implemented in 2009.
Market studies in China show that the cost of a pack of cigarettes is about $1 or $2 for low-end brands compared to the prices in the United States that start from $5 and go up to $15.
While the Xinhua News Agency in China did not release any specific information about the increase in tobacco prices, the government has decided that they will want to discourage smoking in their country. Even though a significant part of the income in China is represented by sales of tobacco products, smoking has become an issue in the health of the population which was the catalyst for this matter.
In June 2015 the new regulations that will forbid indoor smoking will be implemented in Beijing, the first city in China to take a first step in this matter. The government has announced a similar ban on a national scale that will implement even more warnings to be printed on the packages of cigarettes and will strictly limit the smoking in movies and on national television programs.
Statistics, according to the World Health Organization, show that in China, there are more than 740 million people who are exposed to passive smoking and lung cancer makes 1.3 million victims every year representing one third of the global population.
