Commission IX DPR appreciates cigarette price increase discourse

Jakarta, InfoPublik - The House of Representatives (DPR) considered the discourse on the government’s plan to raise the cigarettes price up to 300 percent should be appreciated. Moreover, the positive objectives include to reduce the rising number of smokers and to decrease State Budget deficit which is now reaching Rp133 trillion.

"The government perceives this as the best way to decrease the deficit in order to continue development. Finding other source of revenue such as raising the fuel price is unlikely. It could cause turmoil in society. The easiest way is to raise the cigarette tax because of its skeptical market. Regardless price rising, people will keep buying due to their own addiction. Raising the price of cigarettes will not trigger a big unrest,” said DPR Commission IX chairperson Dede Yusuf in Jakarta, Monday (8/22).

As a member of health commission, he is committed to health issues. Cigarettes are not good for health, because smoking has a lot of negative effects.

These negative impacts, he said, could not be denied and many findings said that smoking is not good for health and could cause diseases, such as, lung cancer, heart disease, and so forth since cigarettes contain harmful substances.

"If the government raises the price of cigarettes in order to suppress the use of cigarettes, of course we approve. But, in the term of trading, I might have another opinion. So, let’s just wait which policy will be taken by the government," he said.

He continued that problems regarding cigarettes in Indonesia could not be reduced, any policy that would be taken would not take effect on the number of smokers. “As we can see in public, there are still a lot of smokers in places where smoking are prohibited, for example, in city transports and in the crowd,” he said.

In contrast, the neighboring countries, Singapore for instance, has a strict law about it: smokers only smoke in some certain corners. If there is a smoker among the crowd, he/she will be directly given sanction. Those who smoke in public places will be excommunicated.

Such thing could not be implemented in Indonesia because cigarettes are very easy to get, the price is cheap, and people can buy a single cigarette or two. “So if you want to reduce the number of smokers, control the points of sale, not the buyers. Smokers will keep smoking if there are chances,” he concluded. (Translator: Erik Limantara)