Government seeks cigarette price hike to lower smoking rate скачать в хорошем качестве

Government seeks cigarette price hike to lower smoking rate

Korea may be a smoker's paradise... but the government is hoping a price hike will change that for the benefit of public health. Prices for tobacco are among the lowest in OECD countries while the smoking rate nears the top of the list. Kwon Soa reports on the latest price strategy to reduce the number of smokers. This anti-smoking campaign is the most recent attempt by the Korean government to curb the smoking rate in Korea. And raising cigarette prices is another option the health ministry has on the table. In Korea, you pay 2-thousand-500 won or roughly 2-and-a-half U.S. dollars for a pack of 20 cigarettes. That's the cheapest price among the 41 OECD nations. A pack of cigarettes is more than six times more expensive in Norway than it is in Korea. While smokers are divided on this idea... "I might quit if they doubled the prices." "I think the smoking rate would only drop with price hikes to three or four dollars a pack." ...experts say there is a correlation between cigarette prices and the smoking rate. "In 2004, the tax increased by 500 won per pack, and it resulted that cigarette sales decreased 27 percent in 2005, just one year." But the government has failed to push through price increases many times before,... for one main reason. "There are concerns people in the low-income bracket will be hit hardest, since a cigarette price hike also means a tax hike." This is because a tobacco tax does not differentiate according to the level of income smokers earn. While a tax increase is pointed to as one of the most effective tools for tobacco control, industry observers also suggest funneling profits from cigarette sales toward anti-smoking and smoking cessation programs. Korea's smoking rate was the second highest among OECD member nations last year. Kwon Soa, Arirang News.