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RP, Thailand resume hearing on row over cigarette duties 

PHILIPPINE and Thai negotiators late last week resumed their second hearing on an ongoing trade dispute over cigarette duties, the Manila delegation said in a statement over the weekend.

The dispute process had been held up when the World Trade Organization (WTO), which arbitrates the case, had to make way for the resumption of talks seeking to forge a global trade pact.

The Philippines, at the hearing last Nov. 4-6, reiterated claims that Thai tax policies on foreign-made cigarettes violate WTO rules as they unfairly favor domestic industry, the statement read.

A ruling from an international panel led by Brazil WTO representative Roberto Acevedo is expected early next year, the statement read further.

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TORT: Support from big tobacco 

The planned use of additional cigarette taxes for targeted spending on children’s health care is a perfect example of how smokers themselves, through their support for additional taxes on their vice, can contribute to public welfare. A recent study by the government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) indicates that the proposed restructuring of local taxes on cigarettes and liquor can prospectively raise up to P60 billion in additional revenues for the government every year.

Simulations by the government also show that the proposed increase in “sin” taxes, now pending in Congress, can have the biggest impact on revenue collection—an estimated P22 billion in the first year of implementation, another P30 billion to P40 billion in the second year, P40 billion to P50 billion in the third year, and P60 billion to P70 billion annually thereafter. And while Congress contemplates this proposal, the Executive should likewise move to make efficient, transparent, and accountable the collection of taxes on cigarettes and perhaps liquor.

If only smokers can support the noble aims of efficient taxation of their vice, then there shouldn’t be any reason for cigarette makers and importers, and even tobacco farmers as well as their representatives in Congress, to fight efforts for better—if not higher—tax collection and cigarettes and tobacco products. How can any of them begrudge or fight efforts to improve health care particularly for children?

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• Operation ‘Samhna’ : Potentially the largest seizure of cigarettes ever 

A multi agency operation, code named ‘Samhna’, headed up by Revenue’s Customs Service, is currently underway in Greenore Port, Co Louth, and surrounding area.

The operation, targeting the suspected criminal activities of an organised crime group operating both north and south of the border, involved the surveillance of a general cargo vessel M/V Anne Scan, which sailed from the Philippines on 15/09/2009 for Greenore Port, arriving at approximately 0600 hours on Monday, 26/10/2009, carrying a cargo declared as ‘animal feed’. Officers kept the vessel under surveillance, as they suspected that a large consignment of contraband cigarettes was concealed within the cargo.

Following the discharge of part of the cargo from the vessel earlier this morning onto awaiting trucks, which were allowed onwards to the importer’s premises, the multi agency task force, involving Officers of Revenues Customs Service and An Garda Siochana, moved in and raided several premises in the Co. Louth area, in addition to mounting an operation on the vessel itself. A large consignment of contraband cigarettes has been confirmed, estimated to be in excess of 120m cigarettes with a retail value of about €50m and a potential revenue at risk of approximately €40m. Several persons have been arrested at various locations by the Gardai for questioning.

The operation in the Republic of Ireland involved Officers of Revenue’s Customs Service, An Garda Siochana, The Criminal Assets Bureau, the Irish Naval Service and Air Corps and in Northern Ireland, Officers of HM Revenue & Customs and the PSNI. In addition the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which was also involved, will co-ordinate the international enquiries which will form part of the follow-up investigations. It is estimated that in excess of 150 Officers from the various Agencies participated in the field in today’s operation.

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• £45m cigarettes haul was first of five planned runs in audacious smuggling scheme  

The cargo ship seized with a record £45m of illegal cigarettes on board was on the first in a series of five planned voyages from the Philippines to Ireland, it can be revealed.

An audacious plan to land a total of £200m of cigarettes in multiple shipments at Greenore, Co Louth, was foiled when Customs officers seized the MV Anne Scan.

Nine men arrested as part of the Customs Service operation have now been released and a file is being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, gardai said last night.

Security sources said last night it was their belief the shipment was a maiden run in a planned series of up to five huge shipments from the Philippines of illegal cigarettes hidden in animal feed.

“The intention of this Irish gang, with others contributing funding in return for big profits, was to move a shipment every two months, we think to flood Ireland and the UK with cheap cigarettes and make big, big money,” said one senior officer.

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Nine freed in cigarette smuggling inquiry  

ALL NINE men who were arrested in connection with the seizure of tens of millions of cigarettes in Greenore Port, Co Louth, on Tuesday have been released.

A statement from the Garda Press Office last evening confirmed the release, and said a file was being prepared for the DPP.

The nine men include seven Irish nationals aged between 19 and mid-40s, one Lithuanian in his 50s and one Ukrainian in his 40s. They were held under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984, at Garda stations in counties Louth and Monaghan.

Customs and Revenue officers yesterday began the painstaking task of stripping the vessel containing the haul, the MV Anne Scan, and counting what officials suspect amount to 120 million cigarettes, worth about €50 million.

The ship is a general cargo vessel some 80m in length which is German-owned but was chartered from the Philippines.

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Northern Ireland | Millions of illegal cigs captured 

A massive cigarette-smuggling operation by a cross-border criminal gang has been smashed.

In what was described as the biggest seizure in the UK and Ireland, more than 120 million cigarettes were seized on a ship at Greenore, County Louth.

About 150 law enforcement officers from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were involved in the operation.

Two men from County Armagh were among nine people arrested in County Louth. The cigarettes are worth 50m euros.

The ship had left the Philippines on 15 September carrying a cargo declared as animal feed. . . .

HM Revenue and Customs spokesman John Whiting said the operation targeted a suspected organised crime group operating on both sides of the Irish border

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Heart attacks blamed on 2nd-hand smoke 

Second-hand smoke is the culprit in some 20 percent of heart attack cases in Metro Manila, health officials revealed on Monday as they called for the participation of local government leaders to implement 100 percent smoke-free policies in their areas of jurisdiction.

From January to February this year, the World Lung Foundation (WLF) and Paris-based organization The Union surveyed the magnitude of smoking and its effects on the residents of Metro Manila.

The study also found that more than half of the people in the metropolis inhale second-hand smoke every day. Seventy-four percent are exposed to it one or more times per week but only 8 percent complain about it.

"Tobacco is taking a devastating toll in the Philippines and people are dying every day, even those who don't use tobacco. The way to reverse this epidemic is through proven policies such as creating 100 percent smoke-free public places and work places," Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Francisco T. Duque III told the press in a conference in Tayuman, Manila on Monday.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is giving the DoH $740,000 to facilitate anti-tobacco strategies especially to ensure effective implementation of Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003.

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20 percent of Metro heart attacks due to passive smoke  

Second-hand smoke causes over 20 percent of the number of heart attacks in Metro Manila, officials from the Department of Health (DoH) said on Monday.

One to seven hours of weekly exposure to second-hand smoke increases the number of heart attacks or acute myocardial infarction by 10 percent and a weekly exposure of 21 hours in turn raises the number of heart attacks by 20 percent, said DoH Secretary Francisco Duque III quoting an international study.

The study from the World Lung Foundation and International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) also found that over 50 percent of Filipinos in Manila are exposed to second-hand smoke daily--meaning there is a high likelihood of regular exposure to passive smoking, said Duque.

The health secretary added heart attacks and circulatory systems diseases--the top two killer diseases in 2005 which caused over 130,000 deaths--are caused by exposure to second-hand smoking, a scenario that can be prevented if tobacco control ordinances are implemented and followed nationwide.

Globally, over five million people die from tobacco smoke-related illnesses, with 13,000 to 18,000 of these from the Philippines, said Bloomberg Philanthropies representative Kelly Larson.

The Union representative Bill Bellew said the proper implementation of ordinances on tobacco control in over 10 countries were in place, a reduction of 17 percent to 50 percent in the number of heart attacks was noted.

In line with this, The Union and Bloomberg Philanthropies gave DoH a grant of $745,000 to launch a program to intensify the ban against smoking and the implementation of Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 through information campaigns and strict implementation of tobacco control ordinances, said Duque.

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DOH urges Congress to pass graphic health warning bill on cigarette labels  

Amidst clamor from the international community for the Philippines to comply with the graphic health warnings on cigarette labels of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the Department of Health (DOH) urges Congress to pass the graphic health warning bill on cigarette labels.

The department enlisted the help of the media in advocating to the public the urgency of passing the Graphic Health Warning bill in the Philippines during the Third Quarter Media Forum on Tobacco Control at Davao City recently.

Legislative bills (SB2377 and HB3364) have been filed on both Houses of Philippine Congress that will mandate the use of picture warnings instead of plain text warnings on no less than 50 percent of both the front and back surfaces of tobacco packages.

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WHO eyes 'graphic warning' as effective deterrent to smoking  

Dr. Florante E. Trinidad, Technical Officer, Tobacco Free Initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) sees picture-based warnings as effective deterrent against tobacco smoking as compared to text warnings only.

Speaking on the second day of the 3rd Quarter 2009 Media Forum on Tobaco Control Program held recently at the Davao Regency Resort and Hotel Davao City, Dr. Trinidad pointed out during his presentation that picture-based health warnings would increase its effectiveness, make the message more noticeable and salient and help counter the branding and imagery of the package. According to him, it also engages the audience on an emotional level and communicates information to illiterate or less literate populations. . . .

Among the world's youths, according to Trinidad, Philippines counts among the heaviest tobacco users with Filipino girls occupying 2nd place and Filipino boys occupied the 4rth slot in 2003. One in every five students, aged 13-15 currently smoke.

It is also equally alarming, as Trinidad pointed out, that hundreds of thousands of people who have never smoked die each year from illness related to inhalation of other people's tobacco smoke.

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Media central to plan to end smoking  

The mass media has a vital role to play in making the programme for a Smoke-Free Viet Nam effective, experts said at a workshop last Saturday.

Around 50 reporters from various publications in the country attended the media awareness workshop organised by the Tobacco Control Programme of the Viet Nam Steering Committee on Smoking and Health and the American Cancer Society.

Experts from the US and the Philippines shared experiences on writing news and stories that can draw the attention of readers and improve awareness and understanding of influences of smoking.

Truong Trong Hoang, director of the city's health education and communication centre, said that the media should continuously work to improve public awareness and encourage people to protect their own health and that of their families.

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The market for tobacco in the Philippines increased at a compound annual growth rate of 4.9% between 2003 and 2008 

This databook provides key data and information on the tobacco market in the Philippines. This report is a comprehensive resource for market, category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution share and company & brand share. This report also provides expenditure and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.

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菲律宾烟税增加 烟草业销量可能下滑15% 

据一位烟草执行官说，由于合法税收的提高，使在经济缓慢增长时，卷烟产品需求疲软加剧，当地烟草行业前景黯淡。

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• Tobacco firm sees up to 15% decline 

PROSPECTS for the local tobacco industry have become dimmer with legislated tax hikes aggravating the weakening of demand for cigarette products amid the slow economy, according to a tobacco executive.

In a chance interview, Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing, Inc. president Chris Nelson said the total industry could go down by 10% to 15% this year, pointing out that the increase in excise taxes in January has hampered demand for tobacco products. The company is the local arm of cigarette maker Philip Morris International.

"If you look at the total market, it is already off by 30% [in the first half] ... The impact is sharper at the start of the year but tends to moderate over time," Mr. Nelson said.

Price increases for the Philip Morris and Marlboro brands following the increase in excise taxes and the weak economy resulted in a drop in consumption, he said.

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Cigar firms worry over frequent tax changes 

CIGARETTE manufacturers are pleading for a respite from frequent changes in applicable excise rate for their products, and urged the government on Friday to defer implementing still more changes soon after the last adjustments shall have been in place by 2011.

Chris Nelson, Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. managing director, told reporters the latest adjustments have just been adopted this year and already there are plans to junk the existing four-tier system and adopt a single rate by 2012.

This, at a time when the domestic market went down 30 percent in the first half, Nelson said at the sidelines of the Bright Leaf Awards Ceremonies that Philip Morris hosted at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino.

He said the latest signals were from a revitalized economy fed by upbeat consumption activities that give them renewed hope the market would be down just 10 percent up to 15 percent only by the end of the year.

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