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Jun 1, 2009, 6:08 GMT

Taiwan doubles cigarette surcharge to discourage smoking

Taipei - Taiwan on Monday doubled the surcharge on cigarettes to discourage smoking, but anti-smoking campaigners said it was not enough to cut the number of smoking. The Department of Health raised the surcharge on each packet of cigarettes from 10 Taiwan dollars (30 US cents) to 20 Taiwan dollars (60 US cents). It said the revenue would be used for the medical treatment of low-income families. But the John Tung Foundation that leads Taiwan's anti-smoking campaign, said the surcharge hike was too small. 'Health surcharge and tax are two different things. Taiwan imposed a 11.8 Taiwan dollars cigarette tax in 1987 and has not raised it for more than 20 years,' the foundation's Lin Ching-li said. 'We want the government to raise cigarette tax until the average price for a packet of cigarette is 100 Taiwan dollars (3 US dollars),' she said. Lin said that compared with foreign countries with a high living standard, cigarette price in Taiwan is too low. 'A package of cigarette costs about 10 US dollars in New York and 6.5-7 US dollars in California. In rich countries in Asia, Taiwan's cigarette price is the lowest,' she noted. Lin said that research has shown the raising cigarette price is effective in discouraging smoking. After Hong Kong raised cigarette tax in 1983, the percentage of smokers in Hong Kong dropped from 23 per cent in 1982 to 14 per cent in 2005, the foundation said in a statement.

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