News - Saturday, August 23, 2008 2:11 - 0 Comments

Govt may not raise tobacco excise

The government may leave unchanged excise duty for cigarettes and tobacco next year to protect the cigarette industry’s employment rate amid sluggish growth in other labor-intensive sectors.

“We expect to count on more excise revenue from an increase in cigarette sales. We forecast the sales will be higher next year,” the Finance Ministry’s Director General of Customs and Excise Anwar Surpijadi told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

In the draft of the 2009 state budget, revenue from excise duty is set at Rp 47.5 trillion (US$5.17 billion), up 4 percent from the Rp 45.7 trillion targeted in this year’s budget.

Anwar said he was concerned a further rise in the excise would hurt the cigarette industry and risk the jobs of its millions of workers. Continue…