Budget 2023 and its impact on the tobacco control landscape

BUDGET 2023 AND ITS IMPACT ON THE TOBACCO CONTROL LANDSCAPE

FEBRUARY 25, 2023 @9.45PM

The Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) would like to thank the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the government for tabling a budget which is aimed at strengthening our economic fundamentals while also taking into account the welfare of all Malaysians, especially during the possible turbulent economic times ahead.

The Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) welcomes the Prime Minister’s assurance of the government proceeding with the Control of Tobacco Products and Smoking Bill especially in terms of the Generational End-Game which is intended to protect future generations from being entrapped into the addictive behaviour from utilisation of cigarettes or other e-cigarette and vaping products.

The Council also acknowledges the government’s move to impose an excise duty on e-cigarette and vaping products containing nicotine. As mentioned by the Prime Minister, though technically not legal, e-cigarette and vaping products are widely available and should be regulated in a formal manner.

However, the government must also acknowledge that a large part of the e-cigarette and vaping product market consists of products which do not contain nicotine; and the consumption of these products make up a large part of the purported RM 2 billion per year income reported by the industry.

"While some quarters continue to position e-cigarette and vaping products containing nicotine as part of smoking cessation strategies, it must be clearly understood that products not-containing nicotine only have a role in terms of recreational use. In line with public health principles and the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC ) Taxation and Price Measures, these unsafe products definitely need to be taxed as well. These will also be an important strategy in making them unaffordable and unavailable to children and adolescents who are prohibited from utilising them," the Council said in a statement issued to the media.

As such, the Council strongly recommends to the government that all e-cigarette and vaping products should be taxed in line with public health principles. The actual tariff of these products may differ in accordance to presence or absence or nicotine; as well as according to the amount of nicotine content within these products.

The Council is also heartened by the Prime Minister’s statement that the government will channel half of the revenue collected from this new excise duty to the Ministry of Health. There have been numerous calls for the earmarking of ‘sin’ tax collected from the excise duties on products such as cigarettes and alcohol to the healthcare sector, and this is a welcome move in the right direction.

However, the Council calls for the Ministry of Health to also play its part in utilising these monies for further strengthening smoking cessation efforts including in funding education programmes and widening availability of services including therapeutics across the country. It must be remembered that as individuals at high risk, efforts should be focused on risk-reduction for these individuals through getting them to cease their nicotine addiction.

These welcome moves by the government in the Budget 2023 today send strong positive signals that the government is truly concerned with the health and welfare of all Malaysians. The Council, and its member organisations, laud this brave and welcome effort.

However, the job in terms of tobacco control remains incomplete. There is still no overarching framework to govern the conventional cigarette, e-cigarette and vape landscape, and this opens up many loopholes in terms of regulation and enforcement of the industry even in terms of revenue collection.

As such, the Malaysian Council for Tobacco Control (MCTC) exhorts the government to immediately hasten the tabling and approval of the Control of Tobacco Products and Smoking Bill. The Bill is crucial to ensure that all stakeholders are able to play their proper roles in ensuring the safety and welfare of all Malaysians, especially for generations to come.