RAISING CIGARETTE PRICE : BUDGETARY INCOME VS NATION'S HEALTH

The discourse of raising the price of cigarettes to IDR 50,000 came up in public following a recent study by the University of Indonesia’s Public Health Faculty, which found out a link between cigarette’s price-setting and the number of smokers. About 72% out of 1,000 respondents said they will quit smoking if cigarette’s price is to double the current price or more. The idea of increasing cigarette price to IDR 50,000 is conceived according to analysts’ calculation following the survey, setting it as the ideal price to keep school children and the poor away from cigarette consumptive behavior.

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 9^th 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.

In almost any public room, you can see “No Smoking” signs. No surprise, actually, if you remember all bad effects of smoking on your health. The fact is, about 20% of heart attack mortalities are directly linked to smoking habits.

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 most well-known bad substance contained in cigarettes is nicotine. This alkaloid substance lessens oxygen absorbency into the blood, speeds up heartbeat, raises blood pressure, damages the heart’s blood vessels and hastens blood congealing which can easily lead to heart attacks. Smokers are two to four times more likely to experience heart attacks, and the risk is even higher for female smokers who take contraceptive pills.

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?