Indonesia: Price of tobacco packet increases

The minimum price of cigarettes was increased by more than a third in Indonesia in early 2020, following a statement by the Finance Ministry spokesperson to tackle the issue of smoking in the country. With nearly 70% of adult men being regular smokers, the tobacco epidemic is an unprecedented public health problem in Indonesia: 225,000 people die each year from their tobacco use, corresponding to 14.7% of the country's annual deaths, a worrying figure considering that this mortality is mainly due to men, given the low smoking rate among women.[1]. The country is lagging far behind in implementing anti-smoking public policies. As such, it is one of the last countries in the world not to have ratified the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Indonesia suffers from a particularly aggressive interference strategy on the part of the tobacco industry. According to the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), Indonesia is in fact the fifth country where tobacco industry interference was the strongest in 2019, after Japan, Jordan, Bangladesh and Lebanon.[2]. The Indonesian situation is also particularly worrying in terms of the prevalence of smoking among young people: over the last twenty years, the rate of child smokers aged 10 to 14 has more than doubled. The prevalence of children aged 5 to 9 has tripled. This situation is largely explained by extremely permissive legislation granted to cigarette manufacturers, who do not hesitate to directly target young people, through marketing operations, or the sale of cheap single cigarettes, or even a real bombardment of advertisements and sponsorship of cultural and musical events. Beyond the human damage caused by smoking in Indonesia, the tobacco industry is particularly costly for public finances: the cost of diseases attributed to smoking is estimated at $4.5 trillion by 2030[3]. To learn more about this topic, read the analysis of the practices of the tobacco industry in Indonesia ©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] SEATCA, “Indonesia to raise cigarette prices by more than a third at start of 2020”, 09/13/2019 https://seatca.org/indonesia-to-raise-cigarette-prices-by-more-than-a-third-at-start-of-2020/ [2] SEATCA Report, “The Tobacco Control Atlas. Asean Region. Fourth Edition.” Tan Yen Lian and Ulysses Dorotheo. 04/02/2019. https://seatca.org/dmdocuments/Tobacco%20Control%20Atlas%20ASEAN%20Region%204th%20Ed%20Feb%202019.pdf [3] Global Comment, “In Indonesia, Big Tobacco is king”, 07/10/2019 http://globalcomment.com/in-indonesia-big-tobacco-is-king/ | ©National Committee Against Smoking |