Entrepreneurs against Tobacco Control Draft Bill
Pamekasan:Cigarette entrepreneurs have refused ratification of the Tobacco Control bill. They said that the bill could kill small cigarette factories and cause the dismissal of workers.
“Currently, with 35 percent duty, many factories are closing. A 65 percent duty will make it worse,” said Secretary of Handmade Cigarette Entrepreneurs Association in Pamekasan, East Java, Heru Budi Paryitno, yesterday.
Nowadays, 150 handmade cigarette factories in Pamekasan employ thousands of workers, most of them female.
If the bill is ratified, the number of those unemployed will increase.
“I consider that this is a made to order bill, created in the name of health,” said Heru.
In the Tobacco Control draft bill, factories are not allowed to promote and advertise their products in the media and have to pay a 65 percent duty. “This amount could only be paid by big factories,” he said.
Limitation on tobacco production could also harm farmers, because tobacco revenuse are greater than other commodities such as rice, corn and ground nuts.
“In Madura, tobacco harvests are considered money harvests,” he said.
Tobacco production in Pamekasan has so far amounted to 20,000 tons in 2009, from 32,000 hectares of land with duty dividends of Rp18 billion per year.
Mohammad Iksan, the owner of cigarette factory Mitra Lima, Malang , said that the bill will cause thousands of people to become unemployed and harm the regional government.
The Malang municipal government, for example, receive Rp17.6 billion. This is a 400 percent increase compared to the 2008 revenue which amounted to Rp4 billion.
The Head of Legal and Organization Bureau of the Health Department Budi Sampurna said that although it is too late for the government to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), it will control tobacco with this bill.“Even though it (the FCTC) is still not ratified, we still have the Tobacco Control bill which is already included in the national legislation program,” said Budi in Bandung yesterday.
The Tobacco Control bill adopts important articles in FCTC.
The Deputy Head of Commission IX of the House of Representatives Irgan Chairul Mahfiz said that they await the decision of the Legislative Bureau (Baleg) concerning the Tobacco Control bill ratification. “We already proposed to Baleg that we wait for 2010,” Irgan told Tempo
Irgan assured that the bill would not hurt tobacco farmers. “We will invite tobacco farmers and others related to this business to come to the House of Representatives to discuss the bill,” he said.
Tags: smoking bill
