Increased Tobacco Price in Korea

  In Korea these days, one of the best topics of controversy is ‘Increased cigarette cost’. Government says this policy is for decreasing smoking rate but people say the government just wants more tax and it’s not effective to decrease smoking rate. Pros and Cons are in a tense conflict. So today, let’s see about good and bad points of increased cigarette cost policy.

There are good points of increased cigarette cost.

 First, increased cigarette cost can help people stop smoking.

Korea had increased its cigarette cost twice in the past. In 2002, cost increased by 200won and increased by 500won in 2004 with decrease of smoking rate by 13% in 2004. So, it shows increased tobacco price is effective in decreasing smoking rate. Also, Korea did anti-smoking campaigns last 5 years. But smoking rate decreased only 0.8% during last 5years which shows campaigns are not effective. Only the campaign cannot make people stop smoke. Increasing cigarette cost and campaigns are needed in the same time.

Picture below is showing smoking rate and cigarette price of each country.

This video is about increased cigarette cost in New York in 2004 has resulted decreased smoking rate.

 Second, Korean government can secure tax which is needed for public welfare policy.

These days, people ask more and more welfare to the government. By increasing tobacco price 1000won, 25,458,000,000 won will get per year. So, increased tobacco price can help government to plan better public welfare policy. Also, the recommended portion of tax in tobacco by WHO is 70% but Korea’s portion of tax in tobacco is 62% which is still lower than the recommended value.

 Third, we can decrease Adolescent smoking rate which is severe problem in Korea.

Among OECD, Korea’s adolescent smoking rate is 1^st in 15 countries and smoking rate of 3^rd grade of high school is 25% which is twice of America’s. The first lighting-up age is 10~13 in Korea. Since Adolescent has no economic capacity, increased tobacco price will be the big blow to them. This graph shows ‘Adolescent smoking rate in Asian countries’. South Korea is the 1^st among them.

This video is about how much adolescent smoking rate is expected to decrease according to the increased tobacco price.

Next, I’ll talk about the bad points.

  

  First, Government put a greater burden on working class.

Since smoking rate is the biggest in working class, this policy can make them harder. Also, it causes ‘Reversibility of Income’ which means low income people would rather pay higher taxes. Since it is fair that rich people pay higher tax but government is imposing taxes on the wrong place. Also, 80% of tobacco retail stores are composed of small business which is usually owned by low-income group or middle class. Increased tobacco will reduce purchases of tobacco and threaten the right to life of owner of small business.

  Second, it is possible to make fake and illegal cigarettes.

In 2001, few imported cigarette cost was increased and some fake cigarettes were in circulation from China. The fake cigarette has higher portion of Tar, Nicotine and CO. It makes people in vicious cycle since the more contaminant uptakes, the stronger tobacco will be needed. Finally, it’ll injure the public health more.

  Third, government is making false claim just to get more tax.

There is a study about increasing tobacco price by David Cutler and Edward Glazer, a professor in Harvard University. They said about ‘Why Europeans smoke more than Americans?’. America has lower tobacco price and weak regulations than Europe but it also has lower smoking rate than Europe. Professors said that it’s because of the government’s effective and strong campaigns in America. If the government really wants to decrease smoking rates, they should do effective anti-smoking education and campaigns, not increasing tobacco price. Also, to make people quit smoking, it is known that increasing tobacco price extremely high in one time is effective. Some people quit smoking by psychological resistance in this case. People’s psychological resistance does not work when the price increases little because they think they can afford it. Raising 2000won will be not work in decreasing smoking rate. It is just for minimalizing the resistance of people and maximizing collecting taxes.

In my opinion, I agree with the increased tobacco price. Exercising increased tobacco price policy with more strict regulations will be perfect. Instead of saying good points of increased tobacco policy, I’m going to refute the bad points of this policy.

 First, worrying about fake cigarette can be prevented by regulations. Since it is only possible to sell cigarette where the government allows, by tightening regulations about where to sell the cigarette will be helpful.

Second, government should open the use of tax. People can have resistance or complaint about paying more taxes, it can be lower by knowing where the tax I paid was used. It’ll reduce people’s complaint and build a clean society.

Third, we can participate in solving social problem. Some people might think adolescent smoking is none of their business. However, I’m sure that it’s prevailing problem around everybody. We should not just ignore the social problem. We should try to decrease and solve the problem together.

There are many good and bad points in increasing tobacco price. However, if we utilize the good points at most and make bad points at least by thinking about various countermeasures, we might get the best result through this policy. Everybody has different opinion on increased cigarette cost but everybody agrees that it is better to quit smoking. So, in my opinion, think this policy as an opportunity to quit smoking is not bad.

If you want to quit smoking and want some information about it, I’ll introduce a website to you. There is much information about how to quit smoke. I want to let people know the various ways and help themselves to quit smoke from this website.

http://www.wikihow.com/Quit-Smoking

Thank you for reading :)