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Tobacco tax increases are the most effective way to encourage people to stop smoking.
Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, citing concern for the tobacco industry, on Nov. 11 vetoed legislation that would have hiked the excise tax on tobacco products once more.
It is worth remembering that - even though tobacco excise taxes were increased in September 2008, and again in February and May of this year - cigarette prices in Ukraine remain among the lowest in Europe. This leads directly to a public health catastrophe for the nation and creates conditions for rampant smuggling of made-in-Ukraine cigarettes to other nations. . . .
However, tobacco companies in Ukraine claimed that this tax increase would have been disastrous for their business. . . .
Transnational tobacco companies came to Ukraine in 1993. They promised employment, investment and revenue. Now they control 99 percent of the tobacco production in Ukraine. In 1992, Ukraine produced 9,000 tons of tobacco leaves. However, despite huge increases in cigarette production, tobacco growing has almost disappeared in the country. In 1996-2008, the foreign trade balance of tobacco leaves and products was negative for Ukraine and totaled more than $2 billion. It actually means that Ukrainian smokers invested $2 billion in the economies of other nations.
What tobacco companies actually produce is death. . . .
Many politicians in Ukraine already understand that high tobacco taxes are good both for public health and public revenues. I hope that the current and future president of Ukraine will understand this as well.
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Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko, citing concern for the tobacco industry and fears of cigarette smuggling, on Nov. 11 vetoed legislation that would have hiked the excise tax on tobacco products by 36 percent.
Public health advocates called a news conference on Nov. 12 to criticize Yushchenko and note that price increases are the most effective way to reduce smoking. Roughly a third of Ukraine's adults smoke, one of the highest rates in the world.
Tobacco-related illnesses prematurely kill some 300 Ukrainians daily, said former Health Minister Mykola Polischuk. "The president's veto contradicts his mottos about European integration," Polishchuk said. "Today all Europe is fighting for air uncontaminated with tobacco smoke."
Since the start of the current year, 28,000 people have been fined for smoking in no-smoking places, which is 20% up year-over-year.
The department for PR and international activities at Ukraine's Interior Ministry reported that in 2008 38,000 protocols were filled up for violation of a ban on smoking.
The law on amendments to the law on measures to prevent and cut tobacco consumption and their harmful influence on public's health signed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko, violators are people, who move with lit cigarettes or pipes in healthcare, educational, sports and cultural objects, passenger waiting rooms at railway, bus stations and airport buildings, trains, taxi, public transport, elevators and playgrounds.
garettes -- at $1.05 per pack -- making the country a bonanza for smugglers, whether by glider or more mundane pathways on the ground. Cars and trucks filled with Ukrainian-made Marlboros and Viceroys get waved through border checkpoints by customs guards who seem more than eager to accommodate, for a price. Loads also move by bus and train, bound for other European countries where high taxes make packs cost as much as $5 (Germany) or $10 (United Kingdom).
The backbone of this underground commerce -- the acquisition of the cigarettes themselves -- is by far the easiest part of the entire operation. The world's four leading multinational tobacco companies, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Imperial Tobacco, and British American Tobacco (BAT), have produced billions of excess cigarettes in Ukraine, fueling a teeming black market that reaches across the European Union. Today, Ukraine is rivaled only by Russia as the top source of non-counterfeit brand cigarettes smuggled to Europe, EU officials say.
The booming trade in tobacco smuggling has major consequences, say industry experts. The growing traffic pushes huge supplies of cheap, untaxed, and unregulated cigarettes into the rest of Europe, undercutting otherwise successful attempts to curtail smoking. Worse, officials say, the trade is boosting organized crime gangs, who find the soft penalties and big profits hard to resist. . . .
Attracted by high smoking rates and the potential for rapid returns on investments, multinational tobacco companies rushed to acquire the state-run cigarette factories after the Soviet regime collapsed in 1991. Today, the big four tobacco companies -- Philip Morris, BAT, JTI, and Imperial -- control 99 percent of the Ukrainian cigarette market.
Ukrainian Finance Minister Victor Pynzenyk can touch the clouds without opening the windows on the eighth floor of his government office.
He sits in his own cloud of dense cigarette smoke while drafting anti-crisis plans for the nation.
One of the best economists in Ukraine, he is also one of the most notorious chain smokers.
“During the five minutes that I was there, he had five cigarettes,” said parliamentarian Oleh Lyashko from Yulia Tymoshenko’s party, describing the minister’s vice.
Public health advocates blame Pynzenyk for some of the cheapest cigarettes and, consequently, one of the highest smoking rates in the world by resisting meaningful tax hikes on the deadly products. . . .
Lawmakers went further and banned cigarettes from workplaces and government buildings altogether.
But many, including Pynzenyk, continue to smoke inside.
Parliament and other government toilets stink of tobacco fumes.
I’m standing on the crooked pavement of the square in front of the tatty Terespol railway station. Belarus is only a few kilometers east from here. Against the gloomy backdrop of the townlet buildings a new, nicely smelling white board stands out, complete with the Polish and European Union flags. Soon I’ll know that it is the only wordly feature of this town which has found itself on the way to economic collapse. The Saturday morning silence is broken only by the whistle of the train leaving for Brest and the barking of a homeless mongrel. What’s it like to live here? I ask myself, going 'downtown'. . . .
''The prices have gone up as the customs officers are more difficult to bribe' - smugglers
'Rubbish!' responds assistant superintendent Cezary Grochowski, the spokesperson for the Municipal Police Department in Biała Podlaska, to the boys’ allegations. 'The policemen and border guards go out of their way to dispose of the smugglers, once and for all.' He does admit, however, that individual cases still crop up, but, in his opinion, the times of smuggling are over. . . .
Lean years on the eastern partition had begun long before Poland became part of the Schengen zone. Since the introduction of the Russian embargo on Polish meat, more and more meat plants have collapsed like a house of cards. Both legal and illegal trade with Belarus had flourished until 21 December 2007, so it was possible to make up for the losses. Today, Terespol citizens are fearful of what the future may bring.
In need of cash because of the stalled privatization of state assets and unexpected costs from last month’s flooding in western Ukraine, lawmakers unexpectedly doubled excise taxes on cigarettes last week.
The increase, which came as parliament met in a special session on July 31 to approve $1.2 billion for flood relief, is more symbolic than substantive, experts said. Even with the modest hike, Ukraine will remain home to some of the world’s cheapest cigarettes and, consequently, one of the highest smoking rates, experts added.
If approved, cigarette prices are expected to increase by only an estimated 15-20 cents per pack in a nation where popular brands still sell for $1 or less.
UKRAINE-A March 18 Verkhovna Rada bill restricts public tobacco and alcohol advertisements in Ukraine. The bill, subject to presidential approval, will outlaw billboard advertisements like these as of Jan. 1, 2009.
The Ukrainian parliament has limited advertisements of alcohol and tobacco.
From now on, it is prohibited to advertise alcoholic beverages, including beer, in outdoor billboards, the first and last pages of printed editions, public transport and day programs of television and the radio. The only exception is made for specialized exhibitions.
This dialogue recurred dozens of times on the illegal cigarette route along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. A team of undercover reporters from the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (www.crji.org) together with Ukrainian colleagues tracked down smuggling routes through the European Union's Eastern borders.
Romanian and Ukrainian smugglers offered the investigative team duty-free cigarettes, illegally manufactured cigarettes, fake brands such as LML (an imitation of L&M) as well as legally produced Ukrainian cigarettes that illegally entered Romania through border check points or the so-called "green zone," the mountainous areas between them
Officials from both countries complain about the growing level of cigarette smuggling but little is done to stop it.
School-aged girls light up cigarettes in Kyiv this past summer. A World Health Organization-commissioned study has found that Ukraine is a world leader when it comes to underage tobacco and alcohol consumption
Widespread underage smoking and drinking is on the rise as exposure to vices occurs at increasingly younger ages, according to a recent study released by the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research (UISR) conducted for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) collaborative cross-national study of 41 nations. . . .
Although the 41-nation HBSC report hasn’t been published yet, UISR’s Olga Balakireva, the Principal Investigator for HBSC in Ukraine, released a fact sheet of its 2006 findings. . . .
Statistics regarding underage smoking also gave reason for concern since the rates rise with age: the number of smokers for both sexes increased by 7 percent among 6th graders, 15 percent among 8th graders, 26 percent among 10th graders, 50 and 33 percent among college and university level students respectively.
“This could have drastic consequences not only for the government, as healthcare costs will significantly rise, but also for the population as a whole,” said Dr. Serhiy Potashev, Assistant of the Department of Cardiology and Functional Diagnoses at the National Medical Academy. . . .
The “tobacco epidemic” is fueled by ‘Big Tobacco’ profits. The three largest tobacco companies making cigarettes in Ukraine (Phillip Morris/Altria, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International) have combined annual incomes of several billion dollars and have expanded production in Ukraine.
The Donetsk city council has banned smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages in the central part of the city (Lenina Square, Pushkin Boulevard, city parks and Kalmiusa Riverbank Avenue), and also on the territory of medical, education and pre-school establishments, administrative buildings and inside of residential quarters. . . . The city council also ruled that the ban would be cancelled during holding mass events on Donetsk streets.
A cigarette advertisement depicting a pregnant woman was pulled from Kyiv billboards this month after a couple of Dutch businessmen complained to the tobacco-maker’s office in their home country.
The billboards started appearing in Kyiv in January.
In the ad, a man is shown with his arm around a pregnant woman. An L&M cigarette pack is pictured as well. The billboard is one in a series of L&M ads that combine photographs of people with the name of a major city and the slogan: “Connected to You.”
The ad drew jeers from the anti-smoking coalition Smoke-Free Ukraine, which learned of the ad after some visiting businessmen complained, said the coalition’s head Kostyantyn Krasovsky. . .
Krasovsky said the Dutch businessmen first alerted him and then contacted Phillip Morris’ office in The Netherlands when they returned home. He said that Phillip Morris employees there said the ad was a mistake and that it would be removed. . .
How did the ads come about in the first place? Local Philip Morris representatives won’t say. The company failed to return phone calls.
Ukraine's parliament has passed one of the most comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising anywhere in the former East bloc. The ban -- which also covers alcohol advertising -- was approved by an overwhelming majority on 15 November after deputies argued that such advertising is doing more harm than good for the nation. . .
A vast majority of Ukraine's parliament deputies, 310 out of 450, voted in favor of placing tough new restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising on 15 November. If President Leonid Kuchma signs the bill into law -- as he is widely expected to do -- all such advertising will be banned from television, radio, print media, and billboards.
During parliamentary debate preceding the vote, deputies argued that such ads lead to greater consumption of tobacco and alcohol products, sending a poor signal to Ukraine's younger generations and posing a serious health threat to the country's 49 million people.
One of Ukraine's leading anti-tobacco crusaders, Kostyantyn Krasovsky, said passage of the legislature was a good first step in the fight against smoking.
That message was echoed by Franklin Apfel, a spokesman for the European regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO) . . .
Tobacco advertisements are king in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian Media Monitor agency, which tracks advertising in 30 Ukrainian cities, cigarettes were the most heavily advertised products on billboards in Ukraine in the first eight months of 2001. The agency says tobacco ads account for 33 percent of all outdoor advertisements in the country.
But anti-tobacco lobbyist Krasovsky -- who directs Kyiv's Alcohol and Drug Information Center -- said this latest attempt by the Ukrainian legislature to shackle the tobacco industry may not work. He says it is a "partial ban" because it does nothing to stop tobacco companies from sponsoring and posting advertisements at entertainment and sporting events. . .
Krasovsky worries -- and industry experts expect -- that the tobacco industry in Ukraine is likely to find loopholes around the latest ban -- including things like direct marketing, which involves offering free samples of the product.