Tobacco.org

• Tobacco Taxes: A Smuggler’s Boon? 

By the end of 2011, taxes on cigarettes reached 71% of their retail price following the latest tax increase in July of last year. The figure surpassed the guidelines that were outlined in the March 2011 World Health Organization's (WHO) report.

The report, titled "The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxation in Egypt," had estimated raising the average tax on cigarettes to 70% of the retail price would prevent over 600,000 premature deaths in current and future smokers. While this may be a welcome development for the state budget and WHO's outlook, it has also resulted in a flourishing illicit trade market. . . .

According to research, the size of the illicit cigarette market in the Middle East and North Africa is 10-15%, whereas it has reached 27% in Brazil and the UK and more than 30% in Hungary.

According to these numbers, the government is losing LE 1.7 billion per year of the targeted tax revenue. Over five years, with the illicit trade market at 10% at the end of 2011, the government would lose LE 8.5 billion -- 50% of the health insurance bill.

Raising taxes might seem like a bad idea, but El-Awa says trial and error in other countries has proven that growth of illicit trade has little to do with pricing and more to do with border control.

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Egypt cigarette-maker sees profits soar a third in last 6 months  

Egypt's Eastern Company saw net profits of LE371 million (US$61.4m) in the second half of 2011, up 31.6 per cent on the same period the year before, the cigarette monopoly announced to the stock exchange on Monday.

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• Tobacco Taxes: A Smuggler's Boon? 

By the end of 2011, taxes on cigarettes reached 71% of their retail price following the latest tax increase in July of last year. The figure surpassed the guidelines that were outlined in the March 2011 World Health Organization's (WHO) report.

The report, titled "The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxation in Egypt," had estimated raising the average tax on cigarettes to 70% of the retail price would prevent over 600,000 premature deaths in current and future smokers. While this may be a welcome development for the state budget and WHO's outlook, it has also resulted in a flourishing illicit trade market.

In the recent past, the Egyptian government has raised taxes on cigarettes twice. First in July 2010, when there was an 84% tax increase that led to a 48% increase in prices. In July 2011, taxes were raised by another 37%, pushing prices up 21%. Overall, the price of cigarettes has gone up nearly 80% in less than a year. . . .

Common sense dictates that with price increases, smokers would be deterred from smoking. Instead, the increase in prices has been a boost for illicit tobacco trading. "What happened was that the market size did not shrink, but instead there was a heavy increase in the illicit trade of tobacco because there weren't enough measures in place to safeguard the market from infiltration by illicit traders," says Karim Refaat, Head of Corporate Affairs for North Africa at British American Tobacco (BAT).

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Philip Morris Egypt LLC Applauds Seizure of over 9 Million Counterfeit Cigarettes  

Philip Morris Egypt LLC ("PME") welcomes the recent seizure of over 9 million counterfeit cigarettes bearing Philip Morris International (PMI) brand names by the Egyptian Customs Authority in Ain Sokhna. The cigarettes, which originated in China, were hidden under a cover load of furniture and destined for sale in the Egyptian domestic market.

If this shipment had not been seized, it would have resulted in an estimated tax loss to the government of over 3.5 million Egyptian Pounds. This latest seizure brings the total number of cigarettes seized by the Egyptian Customs Authority this year to nearly 100 million cigarettes, or 5 million packs, which represents the equivalent of over 20 million Egyptian Pounds in potential tax losses that have been avoided.

The prevention and elimination of the trade in illicit cigarettes in Egypt requires ongoing and close cooperation between government, law enforcement, and the tobacco industry.

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• Cigarette smuggling hits Egypt's economy by LE3 billion annually 

Egypt's economy faces a hit of about LE3 billion ($500 million) yearly, with the smuggling of 17 billion cigarettes to the domestic market, according to a report reviewed by Egyptian Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mahmoud Eissa and Minister of Supplies and Domestic Trade Goda Abdel Khalek on Friday.

Smuggled cigarettes reached 20 per cent of total domestic consumption, which is up to 80 billion cigarettes. The smuggled cigarettes constitute a significant tax loss.

"The total taxes and fees on cigarettes rose by 25 per cent compared to last year," Nabil Abdel Aziz, chairman of the Eastern Company, which monopolises the cigarette market in Egypt, told Ahram's Arabic Portal.

He explained that local cigarettes are subjected to LE15 billion as taxes, mentioning that the damage caused by smuggled cigarettes is not only a financial loss but constitutes a violation of global standards, which will severely damage health.

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• Finance Ministry prohibits selling alcohol, cigarettes outside airports  

Egypt's Finance Ministry has ordered the Egypt Free Shops Company (EFSCO) to stop selling alcohol and cigarettes anywhere other than its branches in Egyptian airports, a company source told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The company source said the decision, which comes days before the celebration of the new year, will grant buyers at the company's outlets in Egyptian airports a customs exemption for one bottle of alcohol and one carton of cigarettes, instead of four of each.

The same source revealed that the new measures have stirred a crisis both in the company and airports, predicting negative repercussions for the company sales.

As part of the new initiative, custom exemptions will also be limited for merchandise and presents brought into the country through airports, the source added.

Alcohol and cigarettes will only be available for buyers in official EFSCO stores upon their arrival at the airport, the source said.

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Smoking in Egypt: know the facts, dispel the myths 

According to the Egyptian Anti-smoking Network, a nonprofit organisation aiming to raise awareness and shed more light on the facts and hazards surrounding the use of tobacco, the number of smokers in Egypt has sky-rocketed to ten million. Each smoker spends around LE110 to feed their habit, totalling up to LE11 billion per year: quite a sum in a staggering economy and considering cigarettes much cheaper in Egypt than abroad.

The numbers might mean not so much to those who value their habit over their pay cheque, but there is more to the importance of quitting smoking than just saving money.

According World Health Organisation, almost 5.5 million lives are lost annually to smoking. Their 2003 statistics reveal that 317,812 males and 266,126 females in Egypt lost their lives that year due to tobacco-related illnesses.

"It is of utmost importance to understand that smokers are deluded by many misconceptions, and unraveling the myths is the first step towards breaking the habit," asserts Dr Abdel Hadi Mesbah, Professor of Immunology and fellow of The American Academy of Immunology, who lists those misconceptions as follows:

Smoking makes you calmer, the so-claimed-soothing effect is just an instant result of the induction of nicotine into your system that actually leaves you weakened and dependant on that substance. Scientifically, nicotine is not a calming or sedating substance.

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Hazards of smoking in Egypt  

Recent studies have stressed that the bone fractures of smokers heal more slowly than those of non-smokers, in addition to other hazards of smoking that affect the mouth, gums, digestive system, liver, kidney and lungs. . . .

Dr Ghanem added, “Smoking leads to ageing effects on the skin, loss of tine and facial wrinkles, which start to appear around the mouth at the age of 30.”

According to Dr Assem el-Essawi, a lecturer of chest diseases, in Fayoum University's School of Medicine, studies have demonstrated that nicotine in cigarettes is easily absorbed through blood vessels spreading into the lungs.

“Nicotine reaches the brain from the lung within 7.5 seconds of taking a puff on a cigarette. . . .

A statistical study on consumers of tobacco in Egypt was conducted collaboratively by the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation. It revealed that the number of smokers in Egypt had reached 13 million smokers with the average age of starting to smoke being 17 in both males and females.

The annual consumption of cigarettes in Egypt is 80 billion cigarettes and the total annual expenditure on smoking has reached LE 5 billion ($480 million) annually.

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• Anti-smoking campaign urged in Egypt 

About 100,000 Egyptians get sick annually from diseases associated with smoking despite being aware of the dangers of smoking.

Egypt is the Middle East's largest cigarette producer and Egyptians are the region's most enthusiastic smokers, who never stop buying cigarettes even if their prices are increased.

However, Egyptian cigarettes are also among the cheapest in the Middle East and a packet can cost as little as $1.

A company in Alexandria has launched a lamentable promotion campaign under the theme of "Cigarettes for All", which includes selling a five-cigarette pack for just 20 cents despite a three-year-old ban on advertising and promotion to reduce tobacco consumption.

"A post-revolution Egypt needs to enact national laws that set the standard for tobacco control for the entire country and are clear, strong and enforceable," Dr. Ahmed Magdi, a respiratory disease specialist, told The Gazette.

He said that Egypt needs to implement comprehensive measures that will change people's behaviour and lead to fewer people smoking.

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Egypt protests disrupt tobacco sector 

The Egyptian revolution has left the tobacco sector guessing about its future in Egypt.

Egypt's 13 million smokers did not have to cut back on their habit during the recent protests and ousting of President Hosni Mubarak.

Some might have been prompted to smoke more - but with factories closed and distribution networks down, supplies were running short.

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• Money from tobacco tax may boost health budget 

CAIRO: Money raised from a possible increase in tobacco tax may go to boosting the health budget, an official told Daily News Egypt.

"The minister, after discussions with Cabinet, said there are talks that money from the new tax will go towards the Ministry of Health's budget," said Hamdy Mohamed, press specialist at the ministry.

"However, nothing is official or implemented yet," he added.

Egypt's health minister announced Sunday that taxes on tobacco may be raised to 70 percent, sparking the ire of some smokers who say cigarettes are already expensive.

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Economy feels the weight of Egyptian protests 

The aftershocks of the political turmoil in Egypt are ricocheting on the domestic economy, heightening anxiety over a slump in export trade ­- including that of tea - and renewed pressure from oil-instigated imported inflation. . . .

Market data showed that tea is the single most important Egyptian import from Kenya but the Maghreb nation also buys tobacco and tobacco products (with British American Tobacco using Kenya as regional export hub), tyres, chemicals, oils, sisal, as well as fruits and vegetables from its East Africa partner.

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• EGYPT: Is the government blowing smoke in anti-tobacco campaign 

Does the Egyptian government want its people to smoke, or do business profits outweigh health concerns? Until it stops selling cigarettes, the government's resolve will be suspect.

"The important thing is that Egypt is taking the first step, with smoke-free zones and various initiatives; the benefits will only be seen downstream in lower healthcare costs," said Ron Hess, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communication Programs, which is helping Egypt with the campaign.

Something is "changing here," said Hussam Rajab, communications advisor for the CCP. "People are going outside to smoke, even in Cairo, where it will be most difficult to change, to avoid harming family and colleagues with secondhand smoke."

Yet in the cafe, nothing deters Mustapha, the young waiter, from lighting up. Taught to inhale at age 12 by a cousin, he still breathes easily and his teeth are white enough. He shrugs, saying, "Sometimes I think about the pictures, but I never think about quitting."

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HEARD: Shisha ban risks diluting Alexandria's flavor 

Nowadays, the place is jam-packed with visitors and residents out and about queuing for ice cream, munching on corn-on-the-cob or enjoying a café latte between puffs of an apple-flavored shisha (water pipe) in the company of family or friends. Well . . . that was true until last week. When I drove along the seafront yesterday, Alexandria almost had the air of a ghost town. Cafes that were crowded to overflowing some days ago were almost deserted. A total ban on shisha within the entire Alexandria governorate, imposed last week, has had a devastating effect on the resort's ambience. After all, for centuries Alexandria and shisha have gone together like a horse and carriage. It's part of the city's culture and heritage. . . .

Local officials have lined-up behind the ban and are giving newspaper interviews mainly citing health reasons for their enthusiastic support. In addition, some of them maintain men should be at home with their wives and children rather than spending their free time in cafes, while others say shisha encourages fraternization between young men and women or lures students away from their studies.

Yet others take the view that endless rows of shisha-puffers everywhere one looks ruin the city's image. . . .

I can't argue that those views don't hold water but there is another side to the story. Yesterday, I asked an acquaintance who's a policeman what he thought of the ban. He's absolutely hopping mad. He told me that smoking shisha is the only pleasure he enjoys in life besides watching football on TV . . .

Personally, I'm sick of the sterility that is slowly infecting the Middle East that used to be redolent with the aroma of spices, chickens roasting on a spit, freshly-ground Turkish coffee, exotic perfumes -- and, yes, shisha. Without it Alexandrians may become healthier but will they be happier? As always, time will tell.

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• Tobacco images inappropriate, gruesome...and a bit of a joke 

The numbers speak for themselves: With approximately 40 percent of the male population smoking an average of 19 billion cigarettes annually, Egypt is hands down the largest consumer of tobacco in the Arab region.

In an effort to shed this dubious honor, the Ministry of Health enforced a law in 2008 requiring all cigarette packs sold in Egypt to carry graphic warnings depicting the hazards of smoking.

The (often gruesome) images are printed on both the front and back of every cigarette pack--regardless of brand or popularity--and cover half of each side. These graphic warnings are updated every six months with a new image designed specifically to instill fear in the ailing hearts of smokers all over the country. But two years on, what effect has this slideshow of diseased organs and suffering children had on Egypt's population of smokers?

When Al-Masry Al-Youm posed the question above to a group of adolescents huddled around a Nasr City street corner, the answer came on a wave of derisive laughter and a puff of smoke. . . .

Of the five images printed to date, the one that has undoubtedly had the strongest effect on smokers, particularly younger ones, has been the limp cigarette--a not-so-subtle promise of impotence, or as the written warning puts it, "marital strife." Frustratingly, this effect seems to be closer to "amusement" than anything resembling genuine concern.

"That stuff doesn't really happen," Moussa reassures Al-Masry Al-Youm after pocketing his pack and plucking his cigarette from between his lips. "At least not from smoking. It's all made up, just to scare you."

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