Taxes up

The Ethiopian Parliament passed legislation to curb smoking in the country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The legislation involves a 30 percent tax rate of the cost of producing cigarettes in addition to a specific excise rate of ETB8 ($0.25) on each individual packet. The increased tax on cigarettes will boost cigarette tax revenues by as much as 81 percent.

“It is a powerful example of how the government, civil society and [the] WHO can work together to enact meaningful change,” said Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO representative for Ethiopia.

The WHO estimated that the tax increase would reduce the rate of cigarette smoking among adults by as much as 10 percent and reduce the number of deaths attributable to smoking by around 91,000 people.

Prior to the approval of this bill, cigarettes in Ethiopia were among the cheapest in the world.