May 30, 2011
(Xinhua)
PHNOM PENH -- Some 300 Cambodian tobacco-free activists on Monday gathered here to mark the World No Tobacco Day and called for the government to raise taxes on tobacco products in order to discourage smokers.
"Tax increases for cigarettes will be the most effective means to reduce the number of death caused by tobacco use," Mom Kong, the executive director of the NGO-Cambodia Movement for Health, said at the event. "Moreover, the increase will generate more tax revenues for the state coffer."
Ho Naun, the National Assembly's chairwoman of the Commission on Public Health and Social Welfares, expressed her full support for the demand.
"I believe that it's a major measure to discourage smokers," she said.
According to the statistics of the planning ministry, currently, nearly 2 million out of the country's 7.5 million Cambodian adults have been consuming smoke or smokeless tobacco (betel quid).
It is estimated that about 99 million U.S. dollars have been spent on cigarettes and tobacco annually in Cambodia.
| Editor: Zhang Xiang |
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