Increase cigarette prices, health researchers urge

Comparatively low cigarette prices in Taiwan should be raised to curb smoking, academics suggested yesterday.

At a seminar on smoking in the country, the academics suggested that cigarette prices be doubled and the health tax imposed on them be significantly raised to discourage smokers, particularly teenagers, from the habit.

According to Wen Chi-pang (溫啟邦), a senior researcher with the National Health Research Institute, there are about 4.5 million smokers in Taiwan, who as a whole spend about NT$31.5 billion a year on tobacco products and other expenses related to smoking.

The treatment of diseases caused by smoking costs the country about NT$18 billion a year, constituting about 11.7 percent of the National Health Insurance program's annual expenditures, Wen said.

Wen said research indicated that raising cigarette prices would discourage smokers from continuing the habit.

Chen Tze-lang (陳紫郎), from Duran University in the US, said that Taiwan's cigarette prices as a percentage of the average worker's wage are the lowest in the world.

Whereas the average Indian has to work for 77 minutes to pay for one pack of cigarettes, the average Taiwanese has to work for between seven and 10 minutes to earn enough for a pack.

Chen said the average cigarette price in Singapore is between two and four times higher than in Taiwan, and that a pack of cigarettes in some US states has risen to between US$3.50 and US$4 after some state governments raised cigarette taxes. A pack of cigarettes in Taiwan costs the equivalent of between US$0.70 and US$1.70.

Low cigarette prices plus low taxes on the product are tantamount to the entire population financially subsidizing tobacco traders, he said, given that the country spends so much on the treatment of smoking-related diseases.

Chen said that the government only levies NT$5 of tax on each pack of cigarettes. He suggested the price of cigarettes could be raised by 50 percent.