Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/550316
tobaccoasia 15 FRONT PAGE NEWS 卷首新闻 disturbing images and dire health warnings. The name of the brand is also displayed in standardized text. Two years on, the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare found that youth smoking rates increased by 36% in the period 2010-2013. Illicit sales also increased, from 11.5% of the market in 2011 to 14.3% by mid-2014, an increase of nearly 25%. Since the 1970s, tobacco consump- tion has been in long-term decline. The only exception to this trend was seen in the last three quarters of 2013, in which sales exceeded those in the last quarter before plain packaging was introduced. Commenting on the findings, Christopher Snowdon, director of lfestyle economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs said "The policy of plain packaging is based on the belief that people start smoking as a direct result of seeing logos and colour schemes on cigarette packs. If that belief is ill-founded (as any smoker will tell you it is) then it is no surprise that plain packaging has failed to have even a slight impact on smoking rates. Bulgaria 25% of Market Illicit A recent analysis conducted by Bulgar- ia's Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) found that the country's illicit cigarette market has taken up 20-25% of the total consumption of tobacco products since spring 2014. In 2010, the total revenue of the black market for cigarettes reached BGN500 million (US$286 million), or 16-18% of the legal market, valued at BGN2.417 million. The illicit market's share in-kind took up 30-40% of the total tobacco products market volume. Between 2009 and 2010, illicit cigarettes became the fastest-growing market of organized crime. Financial damages caused by the illicit trade of tobacco products have increased significantly in the past 15 years because of the growing excise duty revenues in the State Budget. As for social damages, illicit cigarette trade creates permanent employment for around 15,000 people across the country, who annually sell around 140 million packs of cigarettes, causing the budget to lose between BGN400-500 million. An independent survey conducted by a market research agency found that the consumption of illegal cigarettes in the second quarter of 2014 reached an average of 20% across the country. The highest levels were observed in the southern cities of Sliven, Svilengrad, Sandanski, Pazardjik, and Plovdiv. China Ad Ban Considered China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) has been considering an amendment to the country's advertising law that would "protect minors" from harmful ads, including cigarette ads. If the amend- ment is approved, all tobacco ads would be banned in public places, hospitals and schools, and public transport facilities. Outdoor ads and window displays for tobacco products would also be forbidden. The amendment comes as the NPC weighs a ban on indoor smoking as well as an end to tobacco advertising, but intense lobbying by the powerful state tobacco monopoly has in the past stood in the way of tobacco control. China has more than 300 million smokers. In 2013, the tobacco industry contributed more than US$131.30 billion to the nation's budget. China STMA Up in Arms China's powerful tobacco monopoly has mobilized against draft proposals from Beijing aimed at curbing the smoking habit in the world's largest tobacco consuming nation. Ling Chengxing, director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) criticized the recently published proposals, which include a ban on indoor smoking, limits on smoking outdoors, and on tobacco advertising. Speaking in an interview with the Study Times newspaper, Ling said: "We must note that smoking has a history of hundreds of years [in China] and objectively a market demand for cigarettes still exists. Tobacco control is long-term, complex, and arduous work, and one-sided, absolutist, and expan- sionist tendencies should be carefully avoided to make sure the anti-tobacco work is promoted in a robust, orderly and effective way." The administration is the govern- ment department that controls the China National Tobacco Corporation, which sells 98% of all cigarettes in China. Although smoking has declined dramatically in the past decade in public places in the biggest cities such as Shanghai, public smoking is still very common in less developed cities and in rural areas, and is far more common in China than in western or many other developing countries. But the government is also depen- dent on the tax revenues generated by tobacco, as well as the profits from its tobacco monopoly. The tobacco industry contributed 6% of China's annual budget to government coffers last year. India E-ban Considered According to a report by Reuters, the Indian government is considering a total ban on e-cigarette products. The proposed measure should be seen through the prism of the 6th Conference of the Parties to the FCTC in Moscow in October 2014. While smoking prevalence in India is relatively low at 6.5%, the sheer size of the population means that there are 52 million smokers in the country, the third largest global smoking population behind China and Indonesia. In total, there are some 275 million tobacco consumers in India and the Indian government has been proactively seeking to control all forms of tobacco con- sumption in the country.