Lo Wing-lok wants yearly cigarette tax hikes of 5pc

The government should increase tobacco tax by 5 per cent a year if it is to successfully lower the number of people smoking, the head of the Medical Association said yesterday.

Legislator Lo Wing-lok, who also represents the medical sector, said raising the tax was the most effective means of stopping more people falling victim to smoking.

He was speaking after a meeting of the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health.

'I suggested to [financial secretary] Henry Tang Ying-yen last month that the government should increase the tobacco tax by 5 per cent every year, taking into account inflation and deflation,' he said.

Dr Lo also accused the tobacco companies of hypocrisy over their sponsorship of youth-smoking prevention campaigns.

'The tobacco companies will use the youth-smoking prevention campaigns as excuses to oppose any increase in tobacco tax, or further bans on tobacco advertisements,' he said.

Council chairman Homer Tso Wei-kwok also expressed concerns about the increasing number of young smokers, warning that although the number of smokers in Hong Kong - about 800,000 - was low compared to other countries, more youths were becoming addicted.

Dr Tso said campaigns sponsored by tobacco companies to discourage youths from smoking were not effective.

'The tobacco companies only want to dilute the impact of the community's efforts to discourage smoking. Their campaigns, in fact, are part of their brand-building strategies,' he said.

Dr Lo also said the campaigns sponsored by tobacco companies were misleading. 'For example, the tobacco companies will sponsor the anti-cigarette trafficking campaigns. In fact, what they are trying to do is to mislead the public that smoking is a trafficking problem and not a public health problem,' he added.