Ministry of Finance China raised the wholesale tax on cigarette from 5 percent to 11 percent in order to motivate people to kick the butt.

Cigarette smoking is injurious to health, this is a warning that people read on cigarette packs very often but are still known to overlook it. In China, the problem is constantly on the rise with more and more people succumbing to the habit of smoking. The increasing use of cigarettes is becoming a cause of concern for the Chinese government. In the wake of the rampant rise of this problem, the Ministry of Finance in China has decided to raise the wholesale tax on cigarettes to 11 percent, as reported on Ibtimes. This would mean that the smokers will now find cigarettes to be more expensive and hopefully will give up the habit because of the increased expense.

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The tax rise was announced on Friday and will be effective from Sunday onwards. However, a lot of people seem to be surprised by the move. This is because, the government gets a large part of its revenue from the tobacco industry. As of now, the government in China is earning close to 10 percent of the national tax revenue from the earning of the tobacco industry. Therefore, its sudden interest to curb the number of smokers in the country is quite a shocker.

Another report of WSJ, points out that this is not the only effort that the government is taking to curb the number of smokers. Early next month, the Beijing government also plans to impose an internal ban on smoking which would impose more restrictions on the smokers. This will also be followed by another ban that will prohibit the advertisers from advertising the cigarettes to minors.

A report by World Health Organization claims that as of now China is home to one third of the global smokers which is a number close to 300 million. 

TagsChina smokers, China cigarette news, Tax on smokers, curb smoking china