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rate should be first adopted while waiting for new legislation. Adjustment to a specific tax rate would help to reduce the number of smokers by one hundred sixty thousand smokers.

Specialists from seven Asian countries discussed sustainable tobacco tax policies at the Sukosol Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand during 1 – 3 October 2014, with the title, Tobacco Tax Workshop Conference. The purpose of this conference was to foster health development in the Asian region. This conference was arranged by the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge and Management Center (TRC), Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth), Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), and the World Health Organization (WHO). There were 40 participants at this conference representing Ministries of Finance, Customs Departments and Excise Departments from Thailand and other ASEAN countries.

Dr. Ayda Yurekli, a tax expert from the Tobacco Free initiative’s Tobacco Control Economics unit, the World Health Organization (WHO), explained the context and purpose of the workshop: As 2015 is approaching with the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), therefore it is necessary to have cooperation to design tobacco control in each country that is suitable for public health and business development in each country, including to encourage integration and cooperation for the AEC. For this reason, the sessions on 3 October 2014 will include only executives and representatives of the Ministries of Finance of ASEAN countries aiming to obtain approaches to coordinate achieving tax policy objectives.

Dr. Bundit Sornpaisarn, Director of the Health Risk Control Section, Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) said that the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations agree that to develop a countrys economy, one of the necessary control measures is to focus on reducing tobacco consumption, and another one is to increase the excise tax which would help to reduce tobacco use while creating revenue for the country. In Thailand, a surcharge of 2% collected based on the excise tax is used to create health promotion activities in the country. Thailand has established the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) as a mechanism for raising funds to sustain health promotion.

Dr. Siriwan Pitayarangsarit, Director of the Tobacco Control Research and Knowledge Management Center (TRC), said that this collaboration occurred to expand the success of the partnership agreement between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) in 2011 when Thai experts from the Ministry of Finance created a possible proposals to adjust the tobacco tax in 2012. The result of that collaboration was two benefits: a reduction of 6.8% in tobacco use, and an increase of 6.5% in government revenues from the excise tax on tobacco. For the new adjustment of the Excise tax, TRC would like to encourage the Ministry of Finance to adjust the tobacco tax structure using the mixed rate system using both the specific rate and the Ad valorem tax rate (base price of cigarettes / retail price) with this tobacco tax increase reflecting the health costs caused by tobacco use. Information available in 2009 indicated that the value lost from smoking diseases was 29.39 baht per cigarette pack. While waiting for new tax legislation, the specific tax rate should be adjusted from 1 baht to 1.5 baht per gram. That would result in government revenue rising (by 1,400 million baht) and the number of smokers smoking cheap cigarettes declining (by 1.6 million people), with most of these smokers adolescents.

Request more information, please contact:
Coordinator: Haris Taweewatana, Tel., 0-2354-5346, 089-6627-917, Fax: 0-2354-5347
E-mail: haris@trc.or.th