Page 127 - TAIWAN TOBACCO CONTROL ANNUAL REPORT 2019

in 2013, 16,903,500 packs in 2014, and 10,551,700 packs in 2015). Smuggled products are effectively prevented from entering the market and the quantity of legally sold tobacco products is increasing. 2. Administration promotes tobacco surcharge increases. The first reading of a proposal for an increase of tobacco surcharges to 20 NTD and tobacco taxes to 5 NTD in the Legislative Yuan was completed on May 17, 2013. The draft proposal was resubmitted to the Executive Yuan for ratification by resolution on January 12, 2016. Hoarding by the public and tobacco merchants was prevalent during this period. 3. The Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced the "Tourism Statistics Chart". The number of China tourists increased from nearly 2.59 million in 2012, 2.87 million in 2013, and nearly 3.99 million in 2014, increasing to more than 4.18 million in 2015. Indirectly increased consumption in 2016 and 2017 dropped to 3.51 million and 2.73 million people (China has a high smoking rate. The China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the 2015 China Adult Smoking Survey found that the smoking rate was 27% in 2010, the same as 2015). In 2014, the WHO pointed out that increasing tobacco prices by 10% will reduce tobacco consumption by about 4% in high income countries. This effect will be even more significant in middle- and low-income countries. Data also suggested that complete prohibition of tobacco product advertisements and sales promotion alone, without intervention measures on tobacco products, will reduce tobacco consumption by about 7%. This figure may be increased to up to 16% reduction on tobacco consumption have been reported in a number of countries. In America, states that imposed universal smoking prohibition laws achieved a 5% to 20% reduction annual tobacco consumption per capita. Reports from health agencies under the Australian government showed that after prohibiting tobacco display for sale in 2011 and implementing plain packaging policy in 2012, tobacco sales decreased by 3.4% in 2013 which was also accompanied by the largest decrease in smoking rates in recent years. Impact to retailers was limited as smuggling was not increased. The second largest pharmacy franchise in the United States, CVS Caremark, declared on September 3, 2014, that it would no longer sell tobacco products from its 7,700 CVS storefronts. CVS was the first large pharmacy franchise to set the example, and this decision won great support from the American public. IMEI Foods in Taiwan also announced on April 2, 2015 that they will be taking down tobacco products from 88 chain stores throughout Taiwan, making them the first franchise not selling tobacco products in Taiwan. Results and evidences in Taiwan were similar to those of other advanced countries and demonstrated the effectiveness of multi-pronged tobacco control strategies. Since the new provisions of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act entered into force on January 11, 2009, various measures such as gradual expansion of non-smoking areas, release of new health warning label for tobacco products, prohibition of tobacco advertisements, increase of tobacco surcharges, and promotion of a wide variety of second generation cessation services have all helped to reduce tobacco consumption. However, in recent years, the annual average total number of cigarettes per person increases, which can be resulted from the fact that the tobacco surcharge has not been increased for a long period of time. Due to the overly low price of tobacco, it is likely to indirectly cause the smoking rates of the youth and disadvantaged groups to increase again, and the low price of tobacco can also discourage the motivation for quitting smoke, in particular, those heavy smokers may have no intention in quitting smoking such that their smoking amount may be kept the same or even increased. 125 Research, Monitoring, and International Exchange