"Tobacco"

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is planning to impose a new tobacco tax of up to 10 satang per cigarette called “Tobacco Tax for Local Maintenance”.

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a draft agreement to end a dispute with the Philippines over tobacco tax-evasion charges.

Monday’s meeting of the National Tobacco Products Control Committee upheld Thailand’s ban on the import and sale of e-cigarettes (vapes), according to Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Kiattiphum Wongrajit.

The Economic Crime Suppression Division (ECD), the Department of Intellectual Property and the Homeland Security Investigations bureau teamed up to arrest four suspects who were allegedly involved in fake-tobacco smuggling in Chanthaburi on Wednesday.

The tax on cigarettes goes up from Friday (October 1), according to new tax rates announced in the Royal Gazette today.

A new tobacco tax structure effective from October 1 will bring more than THB60 billion revenue per year, according to the Excise Departments estimates.

Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul on Friday inspected a pilot production facility for a plant-based Covid-19 vaccine at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

According to a recent study published in the The Lancet smoking killed 7.69 million people globally in 2019, while the number of smokers rose to 1.14 billion as the habit was picked up by young people around the globe. It was also the leading risk factor for death among males (over 20% of male deaths). Another worrisome finding is that 89% of new smokers are addicted by the age of 25, thanks to the continuous nefarious tactics of Big Tobacco, which is working round the clock to addict a new generation of customers.

Smokers who contract Covid-19 are likely to have 14 times more severe conditions compared to non-smokers, raising the the risk of fatality, a doctor has warned.

Leading cigarette importer Philip Morris Trading (Thailand) is calling on the new government and policymakers to start talking with the tobacco industry, so both sides can work on finding constructive solutions to reduce harm caused by smoking.

The Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry is calling on Thailand to implement customs valuation reforms after a World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute panel on Friday ruled that the Kingdom was violating its law on customs valuation.

AMID THE push by the Philippines' departments of Health (DOH) and of Finance (DOF) to further jack up the excise taxes slapped on “sin” products such as cigarettes and alcoholic drinks, the Philippine unit of global manufacturing giant Japan Tobacco International (JTI) has warned that higher levies would only exacerbate already worsening cigarette smuggling.