A committee of health ministers in the Gulf Cooperation Council has asked Ministries of Finance in GCC countries to increase customs duty on tobacco. The proposal came up during the committee's 69th meeting in Riyadh on Saturday. “Increasing customs' duties and raising the price of tobacco is a successful way of reducing the number of smokers of both sexes,” said Abdullah Al-Serouji, senior official in Makkah's Kafa (Stop) Smoking Association. According to Al-Serouji, there is scientific evidence that an increase of only 10 percent in the price of a packet of cigarettes will result in a four percent reduction in tobacco consumption in developed countries, and an eight percent reduction in developing and underdeveloped countries, with a much smaller number of children and teenagers buying cigarettes. “We can use this additional income to give medical treatment to those suffering from smoking related diseases and to conduct campaigns against smoking,” he added.
