Indonesia finance minister defends plan to raise cigarette prices

JAKARTA: Indonesia's finance minister defended on Monday (Sep 16) a plan to raise cigarette prices by more than a third from next year to reduce smoking rates, after some in the tobacco industry said it would encourage illegal manufacturing and threaten jobs.

Highlighting the fact the excise tax for 2019 had been flat, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters the government had tried to find "a balance" between rising numbers of "young smokers, especially young female smokers" and cigarettes' popularity among Indonesia's poorest, with the possible impact on the livelihoods of tobacco farmers.

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Indonesia is the world's second-largest tobacco market, after China.

"On the one hand, we are concerned about health, while on the other have to pay attention to farmers and cigarette workers … and also guard against a rise in illegal cigarettes," the minister said.

The tax increase, which will take effect from Jan 1 and was announced on Friday, will see the government raise the minimum price of cigarettes across categories by an average of 35 per cent and increase the excise tax on tobacco products by 23 per cent.

Nearly 70 per cent of adult men smoke in Indonesia, according to the World Health Organization – one of the highest rates in the world – and tobacco kills 225,720 people each year in the country, or 14.7 per cent of all deaths, mostly through cardiovascular diseases, the WHO said in a 2018 report.

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The Indonesian government has been raising taxes on tobacco products almost every year since 2014, but that has not had a significant impact on smoking rates.

INDUSTRY REBUKE

The sharp excise hike was criticised by some companies and industry lobby groups on Monday.

Hananto Wibisono, spokesman for Indonesia Tobacco Community Alliance, said in a statement that the increase risked increasing the spread of illegal cigarettes.

"If illegal cigarettes become widespread, then all parties are disadvantaged, from legal cigarette manufacturers, their workers, to tobacco and clove farmers. The government will also be at disadvantage because illegal cigarette producers