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TAX - JAKARTA. Global citizens through “Take A Part” movement urged the government of Indonesia to immediately execute tobacco product excise structure simplification. The current excise tariff structure is deemed to ease teenagers’ access to cheap cigarettes.
“We urge the government of #Indonesia to simplify the #TobaccoTax structure. The current tax structure leads to “high variations in #cigarette prices”, allowing youth easy access to cheap #TobaccoIndustry products,” wrote Take A Part in its official Twitter account.
Take A Part is a global citizen movement that focuses on providing suggestions to the governments worldwide for tobacco control, especially for children and teenagers. This movement is a collaboration of several anti-tobacco organizations and communities that support tobacco control.
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Senior Advisor of Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Rafendi Djamin appreciated the attention by global citizens, including Take A Part. He deemed their efforts to push the Indonesian government to simplify the complicated cigarette excise tariff structure shows relevance to human rights, especially to public health.
“The right to be healthy is a human right, which is mentioned in the UN Declaration. The right to be healthy is inclusive. Therefore, from the human rights perspective, it highlights and should focus more to the vulnerable groups. In terms of Indonesia, the tax instrument is a part of it,” said Rafendi in Jakarta, Wednesday (7/21).
He explained that there are three aspects of human rights that are not fulfilled by unideal excise policy such as the complex excise tariff structure. First, is the aspect of appreciation which is included in the context of tobacco control.
Second is the aspect of protection, which is defined as the form and policy steps as well as its enforcement. Third is the aspect of fulfillment, which concerns access to health services.
“Appreciation is a sympathetic and thorough effort regarding the prevention of tobacco epidemic. The protection aspect is specifically to protect community group/individual through regulations, that production and marketing of tobacco should not be a threat the public,” he said.
The tobacco excise tariff structure simplification is considered to be the proof of government commitment in controlling tobacco. Furthermore, simplification has also been mandated in the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2020-2024. The delays on simplification only shows the indecisiveness of the government on tobacco control matters.
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Moreover, the government had actually stipulated a roadmap for simplification of cigarette excise tariff structure since 2017. However, to date, the government only simplified the structure to 10 tiers without any further follow-up.
According to Rafendi, so far rejection to simplification comes from interest groups with vested interest, which then detriment the society as well as children.
“The first indication that there were groups that rejected the excise tariff simplification has been proved from research results since 2008, where it showed how strong lobbying and pressure by the [tobacco] industry affects lawmaking and policymaking,” said Rafendi who is also the Regional Director for South East Asia and Pacific of Amnesty International.
