The World Health Organization has announced that all the government all over the world should be raising taxes on cigarette. The WHO has also said that today that if there is an increase on cigarettes and every other tobacco products then along with saving countless lives it will also be providing a substantial amount of additional funds for better health services.
The WHO’s report “The Global Tobacco Epidemic 2015″ has noted that a hefty number of governments fail to utilize taxes on tobacco products properly for encouraging their people to stop or pick up the unhealthy habit of smoking. The document has specified that at least a 75% of the price of the pack should be tax.
It has been estimated by the WHO that one person dies per minute due to a tobacco-related disease and this amounts to approximately 6 million smokers per year. It is believed that if they don’t take stronger measures to keep the “tobacco epidemic” under control then the annual number of death has the possibility of crossing 8 million by the year 2030.
At present there are about 1 billion smokers all over the globe and the WHO has noted that many of the countries have just a few and very low tobacco tax rates and then there are some countries that have no tobacco tax at all.
Douglas Bettcher, a WHO expert on the prevention of non-communicable disease has reported that higher taxes in the past on tobacco products has helped in decreasing the use of such products and even has helped in quitting the habit. He said, “Evidence from countries such as China and France shows higher tobacco product prices linked to increased taxes lead to declines in smoking prevalence and tobacco-related harm.”
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan has states, “Raising taxes on tobacco products is one of the most effective — and cost-effective — ways to reduce consumption of products that kill, while also generating substantial revenue.” She concludes that this idea to increase tobacco taxes is “one of the best win-win policy options available for health”.
