Burning Money.
One of the papers today, stated that one out of three cigarettes consumed by Malaysian are actually on the market illegally. The syndicates make more than RM1 billion annually and that is tax free. Government loses more than RM1.5 billion annually. This is simply because lax of enforcement. Since the price of cigarettes had spiralled up it had become very lucrative to smuggle these items.
You can increase the price indefinitely like Singapore where a pack of 20 can be as high as RM23 equivalent or create more smoke free zone but it is not going to curb smoking among the population as long as it is available widely.
Some time back the Health Ministry spend millions in anti smoking campaign. There were bill board everywhere to increase public awareness on danger of smoking. Finally the Ministry had to concede defeat as the smokers number do not show any decrease.
Let’s ask ourselves why people smoke. As long as there can find pleasure in it they will continue the habit. There is no point in telling people smoking kill as there are many smokers who lived beyond 80s. Are we brave enough to ban smoking totally? I am just thinking outside the box for a second.