Anti-smoking campaign to target students, the poor

In its new anti-smoking campaign, which will be funded by cigarette tax revenue, the city administration will target students and low-income residents, an official has said.

Starting next year, the city is expected to receive around Rp 400 billion (US$35.2 million) per year in revenue from a cigarette excise tax.

"We are currently discussing and fleshing out the anti-smoking programs, which comprise not only curative but also preventive measures. Most smokers in the capital are low-income residents so we will focus on educating them. We will also target students," Jakarta Health Agency head Dien Emmawati said at City Hall recently.

Even though the agency has yet to elaborate on the details of the education programs, Dien said that her agency would target both active and potential smokers.

"We will work on how to educate non-smokers so they don't start smoking, while at the same time encouraging active smokers to quit the habit. The programs will be carried out through Puskesmas [community health centers] and hospitals," she said.

Dien said that the funds allocated for anti-smoking programs would be distinct from those allocated for financing the city's health care program.

The city set aside Rp 1.2 trillion this year alone to finance its health care program, called the Jakarta Health Card (KJS). It has yet to announce the amount of budget allocated for the KJS program next year.

"We are currently calculating the figures. We want to separate the anti-smoking programs from the KJS so they don't overlap," she said, adding that the agency would work together with the Jakarta Education Agency to deliver the programs to students.

Jakarta Education Agency head Taufik Yudi Mulyanto said that the agency had already banned smoking in schools.

"We didn't only ban smoking for students but also for the teachers," he said.

"We also have banned sponsors and endorsements from tobacco companies for any kind of school activities, even though they're part of CSR [corporate social responsibility] programs," Taufik said.

The agency, however, has said it will support the anti-smoking campaign.

"We will integrate existing programs with the new anti-smoking programs," he said.

The City Council has endorsed the Bylaw on tobacco tax in lieu of law No. 28/2009 on local taxes and levies, the latter of which stipulates a 10 percent cigarette excise tax.

The tax revenue will be proportionally distributed to all 34 provinces based on population.

Jakarta's population constitutes 4 percent of the national population, and on the assumption that national cigarette excise tax revenue is Rp 116 trillion, the city will receive around Rp 400 billion per year.

Meanwhile, calls for restricting cigarette distribution are mounting as the number of smokers in Indonesia has reached an alarming level.

According to the World Health Organization, Indonesia is among third-world countries with the highest number of smokers.

The Health Ministry records there are 61.4 million smokers in Indonesia.

The data also shows that 60 percent of the male population and 4.5 percent of women's population in Indonesia are active smokers.

Meanwhile, the number of passive smokers in the country stood at 97 million people, 43 million of whom were children and 11.4 percent of them were infants.

Tobacco smoking is said to claim 300,000 lives in Indonesia every year

source: www.thejakartapost.com