Government mulls tobacco tax hike in bid to curb smoking among children
Government to explore pumping more money into educating kindergarten and primary pupils
The government may raise tobacco taxes to prevent people - especially youngsters - from picking up the habit.
"Further raising of the tobacco tax is a very effective measure in reducing smoking," said Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, undersecretary for food and health.
Ahead of the financial secretary's budget speech later this month, Chan said the government would explore the possibility of raising tobacco taxes, strengthening tobacco control and pumping more money into educating kindergarten and primary pupils.
The government had increased tobacco taxes twice in the past five years, with tangible results, she said. The current tobacco tax is HK$1,706 per 1,000 cigarettes, a rate of about 41.5 per cent.
Lisa Lau Man-man, chairwoman of the Council on Smoking and Health, said the smoking rate among young people had dropped since 2008, but rose slightly among primary-school children according to recent government data.
Lau advocates raising taxes progressively, better education and the pouring of revenue from tobacco taxes into policing initiatives and the establishment of centres to help smokers quit.
"There needs to be a multi-pronged approach to curb smoking," she said.