VALD says that the failure to address the issue is likely to increase drug addicts.

Its Programmes Director,  Labram Musah made the call on the back of recent appeals to regulate the use of painkiller, Tramadol over concerns of its abuse by the youth.

He said the sale of single sticks of cigarettes had become problematic since it was cheaper than a full pack of cigarettes and, consequently, made tobacco more affordable to the youth and other individuals with limited resources.

He noted that due to the exposure of children to cigarettes on sale at stands where they purchase biscuits and sweets, the children are quickly lured to start using a harmful product.

Speaking at a news conference, he noted that children in areas such as Nima, Maamobi, Kokomlemle and some parts of Osu community in Accra where VALD conducted a survey were at risk of smoking at a very tender age.

The Programmes Director said: “One of the measures to aid the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals is the tax on tobacco products; it will serve as the revenue stream for government and also discourage smoking and initiation.”

Mr Musah urged the MoH and FDA and all relevant authorities to monitor the British America Tobacco (BAT) and Philip Morris International (PMI) to prevent them from their activities of supplying free promotional materials to tobacco retailers to create recognition of their brands and to encourage the sale of their products.

He said the authorities should enforce the ban on all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and this should include any advertising or promotional materials related to single sticks.

Musah said the enforcement of the ban would be in line with Article 13 and 16 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the national tobacco control laws and regulations.

“The authorities must also ensure that cigarettes are not sold close to educational institutions, hospitals, children playing grounds and places where children are cared for while ensuring that the aspects of the tobacco control laws and regulations protecting children are strictly adhered to.”

He said the newest trend had been the introduction of shisha/waterpipe tobacco and that the youth accepted, which was far dangerous than the traditional cigarette and contributed to diseases such as, Tuberculosis and hepatitis, among others.

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By: Philip Nii Lartey/citifmonline.com/Ghana with files from GNA

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This is because some new tax policies are set for implementation beginning next month; March.

The two new tax policies to be rolled out are the excise tax stamp and the Harmonised ECOWAS Common External Tariff (CET).

Tax Stamp does not intend to introduce a new tax. It rather requires that Excise Tax Stamps should be fixed on specified excisable products to enhance security and tracking features on those products.

The stamps will also serve as preliminary evidence of payment of required duties and taxes on the selected products.

It will also provide an audit trail for tracing importers and manufacturers of counterfeited goods where necessary.

The excise tax stamp will affect businesses that are engaged in the importation or manufacturing of excisable goods such as canned or bottled drinks, non-alcoholic carbonated beverages, cigarette and tobacco products.

On the other hand, the Harmonised ECOWAS CET will affect importers of goods classified under the CET.

Although the CET is being implemented at the ports, Citi Business News understands that an international review of the system has led to the addition of new products such as tripod which attracts 20 percent tariff to be borne by importers of the product among others.

Citi Business News has been speaking to some economists and they suggest that the move has become apparent as government is expected to rake in enough revenue to provide funding for some key government projects such as the free Senior High School programme.

Click to listen to the full audio report.

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By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Government hits businesses with new tax policies (Audio) appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The sin tax, which is a levy deliberately slapped on users of tobacco, alcohol and sugar, is a module in some countries like Thailand, Australia, Switzerland, Korea among others, to support the prevention of resultant diseases from the consumption of these products.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OIYkhx3hmAZg47I2O8bRuq8HMtIHFrV3″]According to Dr. Da Costa Aboagye, who has done extensive work in health insurance, public health promotion, what government needs to do, is to develop a sustainable preventative strategy to help people take control over their lives.

“This means people consuming alcohol; high sugar and tobacco are discouraged from doing so by increasing taxes on such products. When these taxes are increased, it is assumed that alcohol, excessive sugar, tobacco consumers may not be able to buy in excess of what they would normally consume. The idea is to help people live a healthier lifestyle.”

“Such taxes are thus used to “prevent” the likely resultant diseases of such products like diabetes, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and others. The ‘sin taxes’ are geared towards the prevention of diseases, not treatment of diseases. The NHIS is unfortunately medical and treatment focused, and unless their activities incorporate health promotion and prevention strategies, it cannot advocate for the use of sin taxes,” he noted.

According to him, in all countries where tobacco, sugar and alcohol are specially taxed to support health delivery, it is used to support health promotion and prevention of diseases which will in effect, reduce the disease burdens and saves cost.

“Normally in Thailand, Australia and other countries making good use of this module, there is a health promotion fund where these monies are channelled into,” he explained.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), encourages such taxes; “but the core must be directed towards prevention of diseases and health promotion (health and wellbeing) strategies.  The main idea is to promote healthier lifestyles and preventative measures of diseases,” Dr. Da Costa Aboagye stressed.

As a National Health Insurance Finance expert in the UK, he advised that the government should be mindful of the clear distinction between “health and wellbeing, and ‘healthcare.”

“There are other prudent sustainable ways to finance the NHIS than the current proposal by the NHIA and because the NHIS in Ghana is only medical and treatment focused without any health promotion or wellbeing commitments, advocating for “sin taxes” will be unjustifiable,” he argued.

According to him, it will be a mistake to increase taxes on such products to fund treatments of the resultant diseases than funding prevention of illnesses. He said the implication is that, such businesses would have to either increase the costs of their products, which will then be passed onto consumers, who will then have to consume such products, eventually get sick, before such taxes can be used to treat them.

Dr. Aboagye said, unless the NHIA champions health promotion with funds from the ‘sin tax’, it will be wrong and unjustifiable to advocate for tobacco, sugar and alcohol special taxes.

He suggested that, the new global direction for health care is health promotion (health and wellbeing) and preventative measures, and thus advised the NHIA to take bold steps to fund health promotion and wellbeing activities, with some of its limited resources.

“This will in effect, reduce the NHIS cost burdens in a long term. We must not create a disease –oriented NHIS healthcare system, but a health and wellbeing oriented healthcare where prevention of diseases is key to sustainability of medically financed healthcare like our NHIS.”

Dr. Da Costa Aboagye said since President Akufo-Addo is a co-chair of the Eminent Persons for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, it presents the NHIA and the government a huge opportunity to focus on Health and Wellbeing and disease preventative strategies to achieving the Goal 3.

This he said can also serve as a justification for slapping taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugar, in the national interest.

Dr. Aboagye narrated that the NHIA should rather engage with the Ghana Health Service’s Director General, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare, and Health Promotion Department to foster synergy on how to make “Sin taxes” justifiable and workable by developing a compressive health promotion strategy and structures to cater for the health and wellbeing of all Ghanaians.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Funding NHIS with tobacco, alcohol taxes won’t prevent diseases – UK Lecturer appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The action places emphasis on the promotion of partnerships, building of capacities of different stakeholders to advocate, support and monitor progress on tobacco control as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation effort.

The declaration was made during a round-table discussion held under the theme: “Tobacco a threat to development” in Accra.

At the meeting were representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Tourism, and Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

Others were the Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Education Service, Environmental Protection Agency, National Sustainable Development Goals Secretariat, the Christian Council of Ghana, Office of the National Chief Imam, Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, Coalition of NGOs in Tobacco Control and the Media Alliance in Tobacco Control/Health.

The conference was organised under the auspices of the Vision for Alternative Development (VALD), a non-governmental organisation and was sponsored by Framework Convention Alliance and the Norwegian Cancer Society.

The health experts called for the prioritization of tobacco control to combat the epidemic in order to achieve the SDGs as well as strengthen national tobacco control and Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) policies.

They said there is the need to step up efforts to increase tobacco taxes in accordance with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development (2015), adding that the increase in tobacco taxes is the most direct and effective strategy to reduce tobacco use.

The declaration called for support mechanisms to educate and offer treatment support and cessation services; mobilise and allocate resources for tobacco control implementation; and to strengthen mechanisms for monitoring and countering tobacco industry interference.

They said the tobacco concern is a development issue and must be addressed as part of our national development agenda.

“We declare that we will work together to strengthen the implementation of tobacco control efforts in the country as part of our strategies to attain sustainable human development.”

They reaffirmed their commitment to a comprehensive multi-sectoral action plan to effectively implement the Tobacco Control Measures of the Public Health Act (Act 851) to ensure reduction in consumption, sustainable investment in a healthier productive population.

“We know that reducing tobacco use is critical to achieving all the 17 SDGs, as it will improve individual health and prosperity, advance economic productivity and protect the planet,” the conference said.

Madam Juliana Ansong, the World Health Organisation Focal Person on Tobacco, called for urgent increases on tobacco taxes to control its use and prevent premature deaths from non-communicable diseases.

She said the revenue generated from the taxes should be used to finance universal health coverage as well as other development programmes.

Madam Ansong said tobacco control could break the cycle of poverty, contribute to ending hunger, promote sustainable agriculture and economic growth and combat climate change.

She urged Ghanaians to support the fight for tobacco control to save lives, uplift development and reduce health inequalities.

Mr Emmanuel Kofi Nti, the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority, expressed his support for tobacco control especially among the poor and the youth.

He said the most effective way to reduce tobacco use was to increase prices on cigarette which is in an elastic demand to raise revenue for national development.

Mr Nti said currently the excise tax on cigarette products was below 20 per cent while the advanced countries are taking 70 per cent, hence the need to adjust our current rate.

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Source: GNA

The post Health experts call for stiffer regulations on tobacco control appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The report made available to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday by Tarik Jašarević, WHO Communications Officer, said policies to control tobacco use, including tobacco tax and price increases, could generate significant government revenues for health and development work.

It said such measures could also greatly reduce tobacco use and protect people’s health from the world’s leading killers, like cancers and heart disease.

It said left unchecked, the tobacco industry and the deadly impact of its products cost the world’s economies more than one trillion dollars annually in healthcare expenditures and lost productivity, according to findings published in “The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Control”.

The almost 700-page monograph examines existing evidence on two broad areas: The economics of tobacco control, including tobacco use and growing, manufacturing and trade, taxes and prices, control policies and other interventions to reduce tobacco use and its consequences; and the economic implications of global tobacco control efforts.

“The economic impact of tobacco on countries, and the general public, is huge, as this new report shows,” said Dr Oleg Chestnov, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health.

“The tobacco industry produces and markets products that kill millions of people prematurely, rob households of finances that could have been used for food and education, and impose immense healthcare costs on families, communities and countries,” he added.

The report indicates that globally, there are 1.1 billion tobacco smokers aged 15 or older, with around 80 per cent living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); stating that approximately 226 million smokers live in poverty.

The monograph, citing a 2016 study, states that annual excise revenues from cigarettes globally could increase by 47 per cent, or $ 140 billion, if all countries raised excise taxes by about $ 0.80 per pack.

It said additionally, this tax increase would raise cigarette retail prices on average by 42 per cent, leading to a nine per cent decline in smoking rates and up to 66 million fewer adult smokers.

“The research summarized in this monograph confirms that evidence-based tobacco control interventions make sense from an economic as well as a public health standpoint,” said the monograph’s co-editor, Distinguished Professor Frank Chaloupka, of the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The monograph’s major conclusions include the global health and economic burden of tobacco use is enormous and is increasingly borne by low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

It said effective policy and programmatic interventions exist to reduce demand for tobacco products and the death, disease, and economic costs resulting from their use, but these interventions are underused.

Dr Douglas Bettcher, WHO Director for the prevention of NCDs, says the new report gives governments a powerful tool to combat tobacco industry claims controls on tobacco products adversely impact economies.

“This report shows how lives can be saved and economies can prosper when governments implement cost-effective, proven measures, like significantly increasing taxes and prices on tobacco products, and banning tobacco marketing and smoking in public,” he said.

The report said tobacco control is a key component of WHO’s global response to the epidemic of NCDs, primarily cardiovascular disease, cancers, chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and diabetes.

It said NCDs account for the deaths of around 16 million people prematurely (before their 70th birthdays) every year.

The report said reducing tobacco use plays a major role in global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of reducing premature deaths from NCDs by one-third by 2030.

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Source: GNA

The post Tobacco kills six million people annually – WHO report appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This is affecting the implementation of the Part six of the Public Health Act, 2012 (ACT 851) – Tobacco Control Measures, which was passed by Parliament to ban tobacco smoking in public.

Ghana is a party to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and has since ratified it in 2004.
The treaty enjoins the country to take administrative, legislative and any other means to curb the incidence of smoking and reduce the hazards associated with it.

A statement by the Coalition on Tobacco Control signed and copied to the Ghana News Agency by Mr Labram Musah, the Programmes Director of the Vision for Alternative Development, a member of the Coalition, called on the government for the immediate passage of the Legislative Instruments (LIs) on the Tobacco Control Measures.

It said the passage of the LIs would save the people from the devastating economic, social and environmental consequences of tobacco use and exposure.

The Coalition said globally, countries are formulating policies that would effectively control the use of tobacco, especially among the youth.

“Research has showed that women and children are the most affected by tobacco. Tobacco use is a major risk factor to Non-Communicable Diseases. 80,000 to 100,000 young people around the world become addicted to tobacco every day.”

It said according to the World Health Organisation, tobacco-related death would be around one billion in the 21st century if the current smoking patterns continue.

The Coalition observed that tobacco products are the cheapest on the Ghanaian market and goes for as low as 0.15 pesewas and that a ban on single sale of tobacco product would reduce the use by minors and the poor.

The statement said currently, in Ghana, 50 men get killed by tobacco every week and this number is expected to grow if urgent action is not taken, adding: “Even more troubling is that 32,500 boys and 21,000 girls smoke cigarettes in Ghana each day.”

The Coalition said it was encouraged by the initiatives of the Ministry of Health, Foods and Drugs Authority, Parliamentary Select Committee on Health and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Subsidiary Legislation to swiftly adopt the draft Tobacco Control Relations when Parliament reconvene in October.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) advocated the passage of the Public Health Act of 2012 (ACT 851), which included the Tobacco Control Measures and this was achieved through the support of government and parliament.

The CSOs over the past four years have engaged government on the development of a draft Tobacco Control Regulations, which when adopted would reduce tobacco deaths, heart diseases, infertility, lung cancers and disabilities resulting from tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke.

It further causes extreme poverty and research has proved that in developing countries, heads of families spend 10 to 15 per cent of their household income to buy tobacco products, which deprived families of basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, school fees among others.

The Coalition expressed support to the Ministry of Health and Parliament in their determination to ensure the adoption of yet another comprehensive Tobacco Control law.

It expressed happiness for including in the Regulations key provisions of pictorial health warnings, covering 65 per cent at the top of the front and back of the tobacco products packages, banning the sale of single sticks of single sticks of cigarette/tobacco products and banning a pack of tobacco products containing less than 20 sticks.

The others are comprehensive smoke-free interventions ensuring indoor public places/areas are smoke-free, provisions on tobacco industry interferences on public health policy.

This provision is to ensure that, any interaction with the tobacco industry is made public so as to ensure transparency, and provision on a comprehensive ban of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the WHO in 2007 urged countries, which have taken measures to protect the people from tobacco use to do so immediately by passing laws requiring all indoor workplaces and public places to be 100 per cent smoke-free.

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Source: GNA

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