Turkey also has the second-highest taxes levied on tobacco products among countries that have the highest tobacco consumption, the Anatolia news agency reported on Monday.
According to a report on the economics of tobacco control and taxation of tobacco products prepared jointly by the University of Illinois at Chicago and the World Health Organization (WHO), cigarette users are expected to drop from 17.3 million to 16.7 million with the recent tax increases. In January of this year, the lump-sum tax levied on tobacco products increased from TL 2.05 to TL 2.65, while a proportional tax on tobacco rose from 58 percent to 63 percent. With these increases, the number of cigarette packages sold is also predicted to fall from 5.3 billion in 2009 to 4.65 billion this year, the report stated. On the condition that lump-sum and proportional taxes on cigarettes increased further to TL 3.1 and 65 percent, tobacco consumption is anticipated to drop to 4.26 billion cigarette packs sold in a year, the report predicted.
The number of people projected to die due to cigarette-related illnesses is anticipated to be 6.78 million, down from 6.93 million, which was calculated prior to the tax increases. The report stated that taxes on cigarettes should be increased in proportion to rates of inflation and that cigarette prices should grow by a rate greater than inflation in order to reduce the number of cigarette users. The revenue from taxes collected on tobacco products should be used for health purposes and tobacco control programs, the report suggests.
