Friday 18 december 2009 5 18 /12 /Dec /2009 15:44

Entrepreneurs against Tobacco Control Draft Bill

Cigarette entrepreneurs have refused ratification of the Tobacco Control bill. They said that the bill could kill small cigarette factories and cause the dismissal of workers. 
“Currently, with 35 percent duty, many factories are closing. A 65 percent duty will make it worse,” said Secretary of Handmade Cigarette Entrepreneurs Association in Pamekasan, East Java, Heru Budi Paryitno, yesterday.
Nowadays, 150 handmade cigarette factories in Pamekasan employ thousands of workers, most of them female.
If the bill is ratified, the number of those unemployed will increase.
“I consider that this is a made to order bill, created in the name of health,” said Heru.
In the Tobacco Control draft bill, factories are not allowed to promote and advertise their products in the media and have to pay a 65 percent duty. “This amount could only be paid by big factories,” he said.
Limitation on tobacco production could also harm farmers, because tobacco revenuse are greater than other commodities such as rice, corn and ground nuts.
“In Madura, tobacco harvests are considered money harvests,” he said.
Tobacco production in Pamekasan has so far amounted to 20,000 tons in 2009, from 32,000 hectares of land with duty dividends of Rp18 billion per year.
Mohammad Iksan, the owner of cigarette factory Mitra Lima, Malang , said that the bill will cause thousands of people to become unemployed and harm the regional government.
The Malang municipal government, for example, receive Rp17.6 billion. This is a 400 percent increase compared to the 2008 revenue which amounted to Rp4 billion.
The Head of Legal and Organization Bureau of the Health Department Budi Sampurna said that although it is too late for the government to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), it will control tobacco with this bill.“Even though it (the FCTC) is still not ratified, we still have the Tobacco Control bill which is already included in the national legislation program,” said Budi in Bandung yesterday. 
The Tobacco Control bill adopts important articles in FCTC.
The Deputy Head of Commission IX of the House of Representatives Irgan Chairul Mahfiz said that they await the decision of the Legislative Bureau (Baleg) concerning the Tobacco Control bill ratification. “We already proposed to Baleg that we wait for 2010,” Irgan told Tempo
Irgan assured that the bill would not hurt tobacco farmers. “We will invite tobacco farmers and others related to this business to come to the House of Representatives to discuss the bill,” he said.
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Thursday 17 december 2009 4 17 /12 /Dec /2009 15:47

NJ Senate passes bill to restrict e-cigarettes

The New Jersey Senate has approved a bill that restricts the sale and use of electronic cigarettes.
The bill expands the definition of "smoking" to include e-cigarettes and extends the ban on smoking by minors to include them.
Electronic cigarettes look like the real thing but don't contain tobacco. Instead, they employ a metal tube with a battery that heats up a liquid nicotine solution. Users inhale and exhale the resulting water vapor.
The Senate bill, approved Thursday by a 38-0 vote, prohibits their use in public places and workplaces. It was approved Monday by the state Assembly and now goes to Gov. Jon Corzine.
U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg has called on the federal Food and Drug Administration to remove e-cigarettes from the market.
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Monday 14 december 2009 1 14 /12 /Dec /2009 12:21

Robbers take money, cigarettes and liquor

Two men are wanted for robbing a convenience store at gunpoint on the night of Nov. 15. They took money, cigarettes and liquor.
It happened at a Circle K in the 13000 block of Perkins Road in Baton Rouge around 9:30 p.m. Surveillance cameras captured images of them as they walked into the store.
East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies reported the pair walked up to the store clerk while he was outside on break and the first guy told the worker to get in the store. The second guy next walked in carrying a gun.
According to deputies, the suspect carrying the gun told the clerk to go behind the counter and give him all of the money. He then also demanded Camel cigarettes and several bottles of liquor.
The first suspect is described as about 5'11" with a slim build. He wore dark clothes with a blue baseball cap. His face was covered with a bandanna. The one with the gun is about 5'7" with a medium build. He wore brown pants and a black hooded sweater that covered his face. He also wore black shoes.
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Monday 30 november 2009 1 30 /11 /Nov /2009 12:49

Cigarette makers plan to stage rally

The Indonesian Cigarette Industry Community Forum (Formasi) has pledged to stage a demonstration to protest a government plan to increase excise from cigarette products in 2010, arguing that the move is unjust. 
"We plan to propose a judicial review with the Constitutional Court on the planned implementation of the 2009 Finance Ministry regulation on tobacco product excise," Formasi secretary Johanes Paulus Suhardjo told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The plan to take legal action was made after forum members walked out of a meeting with the Customs and Excise Directorate General in Jakarta on Monday, which was intended to familiarize the sector with the new regulation, Paulus said.
The regulation, issued Nov. 16, 2009 also regulates retail prices of cigarettes, a change which the forum says will burden small-scaled cigarette producers.
The forum will also call for a judicial review of the 2008 Finance Ministry regulation on cigarette excise, which was issued in December 2008 and came into effect in February 2009, he said.
Formasi had also chosen to take legal action after learning that the proposal to increase cigarette excise in 2010 had not been made with approval from either the association of Indonesian cigarette factories (Gappri) or the association of Indonesian light cigarette producers (Gaprindo), but from large-scale tobacco industries, Paulus said.
"The Gappri chairman corrected the Customs and Excise director general's statement yesterday, explaining that his organization had never proposed an increase in the cigarette excise in 2010. The government must change the decision," he said.
Formasi's 512 members, Paulus said, would face bankruptcy if the excise was increased next year, resulting in possible mass layoffs of more than 35,000 workers in the sector.
In 2009 the excise increased 30 percent on 2008 levels, and the government plans to increase 2009 excise levels 62.5 percent next year, he said.
Separately, Malang Industry and Trade Agency head Sjakur Kullu said his office could do nothing to help the 300 cigarette factories in the region, arguing that the regency administration was in no position to change state fiscal and financial policies.
The regency administration also had no plan to anticipate possible impacts of the implementation of the 2010 excise hike. 
"We will just direct them to convey their arguments to the Finance Ministry, the House of Representatives and other competent parties," Sjakur said. "It is completely up to the central government. We don't want to be involved," he said. 
However, Sjakur said he hoped the central government would listen to the small-scale cigarette industries, adding that they would be the hardest hit by the new excise. 
jakur acknowleged that there could be possible layoffs following the increase of the excise next year. 
"Just wait and see what happens after the regulation is introduced," he said.
Small-scale tobacco industries in the regency need to improve their management to prepare themselves for competition with larger producers, Sjakur added.
The statements raised concerns among cigarette producers in the region, since the regency administration was seen to be washing their hands of the case, despite it receiving Rp 26.3 billion from tobacco excise annually, some of which was contributed by small industries.
Malang regency is home to 374 small, medium and large cigarette companies, which employ around 32,000 workers.
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Thursday 26 november 2009 4 26 /11 /Nov /2009 16:04

Business group supports limits on internet tobacco sales

An Iowa business group is urging Iowa’s two U.S. Senators to support a bill which seeks to limit Internet sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Iowa Wholesales Distributors Association executive director Craig Schoenfeld.
“We encourage Iowans to get on board and support this legislation and communicate that to Senators Grassley and Harkin,” Schoenfeld says. “We think this is a great step in regulating this particular product, as well as being able to capture lost revenues for the state.” On-line sales of cigarettes have skyrocketed in recent years.
Schoenfeld says that means legitimate tobacco retailers are at a competitive disadvantage with those who sell cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products online. “These are operators that tend to avoid excise taxes — both federal and state,” Schoenfeld says. “And given the national economic climate, the climate here in Iowa, those additional revenues would be welcomed, to say the least.”
The state tax on a pack of cigarettes is a $1.36. The federal tax is $1.01 per pack. Schoenfeld says minors are often able to buy cigarettes online, and that’s another reason for the crackdown. “It’s a way to get a hold of contraband cigarettes which are, basically, sold over the Internet,” Schoenfeld says. The bill Schoenfeld’s group backs cleared the U.S. House in May and all five Iowa congressmen voted for it.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the “Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act” last week and Senator Grassley, who is a member of that committee, voted for it. The bill increases the penalty for those caught selling tobacco products online illegally. Some supporters of the bill say criminal syndicates and terrorists are profitting handsomely from cigarette smuggling operations.
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