Sudyumna Dahal

Opinion | How raising tobacco taxes can save lives and cut poverty across the Asia-Pacific

One study of six Asia-Pacific countries, found for every unit of local currency invested in rising tobacco taxes, countries earn between 20 to 1,057 units in return over 15 years

Smoking is responsible for nearly half of the difference in death rates between rich and poor, meaning measures to reduce smoking disproportionately benefit the poor

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A vendor smokes a cigarette while carrying vegetables in Hanoi. Photo: AFP

Sudyumna Dahal

Published: 4:00am, 6 Jun 2023Updated: 1:13pm, 6 Jun 2023

The human costs of tobacco and smoking worldwide are enormous, an estimated 1.3 billion people use tobacco, mainly in low and middle-income countries. More than 8 million people die prematurely from tobacco use, resulting in at least US$1.4 trillion in annual economic losses. And you don’t have to be a smoker to be harmed: nearly 400,000 women die each year from exposure to second-hand smoke.

Asia is home to seven of the world’s top 10 countries with the highest number of smokers: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. However, according to our recent research for the United Nations Development Programme, not enough is being done limit the harm caused by tobacco.

That is why it’s worth pointing out a solution that really works, but not enough Asian nations have acted on it: raising tobacco prices through higher taxes.

As the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand have shown, this, along with other policy changes, can make a real difference.

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The payoff for higher taxes

Increasing tobacco taxes costs relatively little, but has a significant impact.