Parliament Chief Ade
Komaruddin is in accord with raising cigarette price up to IDR 50,000 as it
will diminish people’s tendency to smoke cigarettes, and he even calls
cigarettes the “enemy of the nation”.
Even Susi Pudjiastuti,
Minister of Fishery and Marine Affairs, responded positively to the discourse
of raising the price of cigarettes to IDR 50,000. She said it will give
positive impact to people’s health. This female minister is known to be a
cigarette smoker herself. Nonetheless, she said a rise in cigarette’s price
will give her a good reason to decrease her own cigarette’s consumption, “for
the sake of economizing and health.”
The less positive response
came from, as you can rightly guess, cigarette-producing companies. One of the
most prominent cigarette companies in Indonesia, PT HM Sampoerna Tbk, said in a
statement that drastic price increases or excessive rise in taxes is not
advisable. Rather, there needs to be a comprehensive evaluation on all linked
elements in cigarette industrial chain including tobacco farmers, factory
workers, sellers, and consumers. Cigarette tax rising too high will in turn
boost cigarette price, exceeding the populace’s purchasing power.
Despite the Parliament
Chief’s explicit approval on the price increase, another contradictory notion
came from his colleague in the House of Representatives. The Parliament’s 9th
Commission member Muhammad Misbakhun said such increase in cigarette price will
potentially reduce sales, and consequentially the budgetary income. Currently,
IDR 150 trillion goes to state’s budget from tax alone, 98% of which comes from
cigarette tax. Such big portion of tax income being shaken by reduction of cigarette
sales is surely not a small thing, argued Mr. Misbakhun. He called for the
government to seriously re-examine the plan to increase cigarette price.
Ministry of Trade is still
not decisive on the planned increase of cigarette tax, nor on how much impact
it will have on cigarette price. The government said cigarette tax is always
reviewed each year, taking into consideration several indicators such as
economic conditions, demand on cigarettes and cigarette industry growth. The
proposed raise of cigarette’s price to IDR 50,000 is also currently being evaluated,
particularly the adjustment of cigarette tax as one of cigarette’s price
forming element. Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani said that the exact number of
increase will be adjusted to the 2017 Budgetary Planning currently under
discussion and will be consulted with all involved stakeholders. The government
has set the target of budgetary revenue from tobacco product taxes in 2017 to
IDR 149.88 trillion, 5.78% up from 2016 targeted revenue.
Current cigarette price of
about IDR 20,000 or less is believed to be the main cause of significantly high
number of smokers in Indonesia, as cigarettes are affordable even for people living
under poverty line, and consumed by people of nearly all ages, even elementary school
children. Other factors are massive advertising of cigarettes and lack of
government control over cigarettes’ circulation. Professor Hasbullah Thabrany,
who headed the institution running the survey, said Indonesia is currently the
“world champion” in cigarette consumption, having about 34-35% of his total
population as active smokers.
Anhari Achadi, a senior
lecturer in University of Indonesia’s Public Health Faculty, added that the
discourse of cigarette price double increase is aimed at saving young
generations from all sorts of disease caused by smoking. Such diseases like
diabetes, heart disease, impotency, etc., cause young people lose their health
and productivity. It is also aimed at preventing young people to become active
smokers.
It is not only a matter of
now, Achadi said, but a matter of decades ahead. Smoking, due to its
health-destructing nature, potentially steals qualified and productive citizens
from this nation’s future. Though the price increase is only instrumental and doesn’t
immediately cause all smokers, especially the addict, to quit smoking, the main
message conceived within this discourse is to prevent our future generations to
become smokers, he concluded.
One single cigarette
contains no less than 4000 chemicals. Hundreds of them are toxic, and about 70
of them are cancerous. Carbon monoxide, for example, binds itself permanently
at blood’s hemoglobin, thus blocking oxygen transporting to the body, causing you
to be easily exhausted. Another toxic substance is tar, which, when inhaled
into your lungs, will disrupt the performance of tiny hair which covers the
lungs and functions to expel bacteria and other stuffs out of the lungs.
Cigarettes also contain
oxidant, which chemically reacts with oxygen, causing blood clotting and thus
heightening the risk of stroke and heart attack. Even worse, they contain
benzene, a substance used to be added to petroleum fuels. It has potential to
cause genetic defect to body cells, and even linked to various kinds of cancer
like kidney cancer and leukemia.
Not yet even mentioning
substances like arsenic, typically used in pesticides; toluene, found in paint
thinner; formaldehyde, a substance for preserving human corpses; hydrogen
cyanide, used in chemical weapons production; cadmium, a substance for making batteries;
1.3-Butadine, used in rubber production, etc.
The risk of getting stroke
is also raised about 50% for active smokers, beside possibility to get brain
aneurysm, i.e. excessive enlargement of artery, which can break at any moment
and lead to cerebral stroke. Your mouth, throat, lips and vocal cords have also
heightened risk of getting cancer.
Among all, lungs cancer is
the most perilous disease you may get with smoking, as chemicals in cigarette
have potential to damage lung cells and thus forming cancer cells. In fact,
about 90% of all lung cancer-related deaths are caused by smoking.
Other disastrous diseases you
risk to get are bronchitis, pneumonia, and emphysema, which causes difficulty
to breath. And, uh, have I mentioned stomach cancer, osteoporosis, premature
aging of skin, cataract, and breakdown of reproduction system?
It’s no surprise that
smoking-related deaths each year even exceed all deaths caused by AIDS, drug
abuse, alcohol abuse, traffic accidents and crimes combined.
Even the smoke produced by
cigarette is no less harmful to those exposed to it. Pregnant women who inhale
cigarette smoke have risks of premature childbirth and having low-weight
babies. Actually, female active smokers with pregnancy have exactly the same
risks.
With such gloomy prospect
of the citizens’ health status in connection with smoking habits, the discourse
of raising cigarette’s price is apparently not a bad idea. Of course, those
arguing that unhindered cigarette sales will give significant amount of
cigarette tax money to the state’s budgetary income seem to make sense. The
problem is, have they also calculated the possible spending generated by all
medical treatments and rehabilitation programs to patients directly or
indirectly victimized by cigarette smoking? Could there be a risk of
over-spending, which would ultimately harm the state’s budget after all?
