According to "Antara", Indonesia's Ministry of Health said that the country urgently needs innovative methods to combat and regulate smoking, as the country's smoking rate has soared to 33.5%, or 70 million people.
Director of Non-Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Eva Susanti stressed the urgency of adopting new strategies, saying that the current price of cigarettes in Indonesia is very low and it is necessary to focus on increasing prices through consumption taxes. She stressed the need to take additional measures to monitor tobacco consumption, take preventive actions, protect individuals from the harm of second-hand smoke and optimize smoking cessation services.
She added that there was also a need to address the growing popularity of e-cigarette users, which has risen from 0.3 per cent to 3 per cent.
Susanti believes that the allocation of funds from the Excise and Tobacco Excise Tax Revenue Sharing Fund (DBHCT) must be used to strengthen efforts to curb smoking and strengthen smoking cessation services in all regions of Indonesia.
She also stressed the importance of cooperation between the Ministries of Health, Finance, Industry and Coordination of Human Development and Culture to monitor cigarette advertising, enforce excise taxes and combat illicit cigarette trade in various sectors.
