How heart-warming. The government has everyone’s best interests in mind – including the city’s poor, poor smokers.
“We will definitely adjust the tobacco tax at the proper time to control the percentage of smokers,” said Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-Man, reports the Standard.
“But each time we consider increasing the tax, we take into account the affordability for citizens, especially those at the grassroots level.”
So… Ko wants to increase the tax to prevent people from smoking but they want to make sure that everyone, including poor people, can afford to keep smoking despite the tax?
The Council on Smoking and Health, on the other hand, has no sympathy for people wishing to indulge their tobacco addiction, and urges the government to double the tax.
Such a tax would make the price of a pack of ciggies jump from HKD55 to an eye-popping HKD93.
That would probably do the trick in making people think twice before lighting up!
Photo: Jen Son via Flickr
