Tobacco plan up in smoke
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The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration of China, and the China National Tobacco Corporation are jointly responsible for the supply, distribution, and trade of the country's tobacco industry.
In 2009, tax income from the tobacco industry totaled over 510 billion yuan ($75 billion) and contributed about 10 percent of the national GDP, Tang Jie, secretary-general of the Guangdong Association on Tobacco Control, said.
"The report shows that profits were totally offset by the disease burden that tobacco smoking has brought," Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a lead author of the report, said at the report's launching ceremony, adding that the income hasn't filled the burden cost since 1999.
Thursday's report also proposed to include a tobacco-control action plan to be included in the government's plan for the next five years and for the drafting of legislation of a tobacco-control law.
"A national law on tobacco control is a basic solution to the problem," Ma Huaide, vice president of the China University of Political Science and Law, who also joined the report, told the Global Times, adding that a State-level law would provide a model and evidence for local governments.
A strong monitoring mechanism and punishment on smoking-ban violators is also needed, Ma said.
"Tobacco control is not just an economic problem, but also a political problem," said Hu Angang, a professor at Tsinghua University and a co-author of the report.
Governments are the major consumers of most expensive cigarettes in China, Hu said, citing corruption involved in cigarette gifts and in purchasing them with public funds.
Sarah England, technical officer with the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative in China, told the Global Times that there is obviously a lot of work to do on tobacco control in China, but she declined to comment on the country's failure to meet its commitments.
"Our role is to provide technical support and advice," England said.
