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· Bhutan
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Assembly declines to endorse Council's amendments
Jump to full article: Kuensel Online (bt), 2009-11-25
Author: Tenzin Namgyel
Intro: The National Assembly and the National Council are divided in their views over the tobacco control bill 2009.
Discussing the tobacco bill, already amended by the Council in July, Assembly members yesterday unanimously agreed to disagree with the amendment made by the upper house. The Council in July lifted the ban on the sale of tobacco and tobacco products by deleting the section C in chapter III. The section states that "no person shall sell tobacco and tobacco products". The Council also deleted section 12 that allows a person only to import tobacco and tobacco products for personal consumption as per quota approved by the tobacco control board.
The Council also deleted Section 24, Chapter 7, which states that the royal government shall constitute a tobacco control board to take measures for the purpose of preventing the people of Bhutan from the health, social and environmental consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke.�
Justifying the deletion, NC member Karma Yozer yesterday told Kuensel that the ban on the sale was ineffective and led to a robust black market. "Tobacco is easily available but at high prices because of the ineffective ban and the idea was to make tobacco expensive by imposing higher taxes," he said.
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