Impact of Tobacco Control Policy for Health in Indonesia
Ajenk Nanda Saprilla
Faculty of Public Health, Universitas Airlangga, Mulyorejo, Surabaya, Indonesia
Keywords: Tobacco control, Health policy, Indonesia.
Abstract: Tobacco industries in Indonesia have a significant impact on the economic sector through creating
opportunities in the farming and industrial sectors. Tobacco industries also contribute the biggest taxes,
meaning that Indonesia’s government earns significant revenue from it. On the other hand, increasingly the
tobacco industries in Indonesia also have an impact on the health sector as consumption of cigarettes causes
high prevalence of many diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular, etc. The budgets allocated by government
for dealing with the health effect of smoking are far greater than the taxes they receive. Therefore, a
regulatory requirement is required. The role of the health sector in formulating a policy related to control of
the tobacco industries needs to gain full support from all parties who feel the adverse impact of it, especially
the Indonesian government itself. This paper reviews literatures related to the impact of tobacco control
policy in Indonesia. The results show that there are many pros and cons in Indonesian society regarding
tobacco control policy
1 INTRODUCTION
The tobacco industry is one of the largest industries
in Indonesia with the majority of smokers in low and
moderate income, especially among Indonesian men.
It is estimated that around 65% of Indonesian men
are smokers. Indonesia is the second largest cigarette
market in Asia. Given that the Indonesian population
numbers over 255 million and around two-thirds of
Indonesian men consume tobacco-related product, it
implies that there exists a huge market. There are
about 53.7 million active adult smokers and 2.6
million active youth smokers in Indonesia (Ministry
of Health, 2014).
According to the World Health Organization
(WHO), there were 95 million smokers in Indonesia
in 2015 and also 20% of the Indonesian youth were
categorised as smokers. On the other hand, there are
millions of passive smokers in Indonesia who must
also be of concern. The high consumption of
cigarettes in Indonesia is a result of citizens having
easy access to buy and a wide distribution network
which makes cigarettes available in all provinces in
Indonesia. Another factor is that cigarette packs are
cheaper in Indonesia than other countries, costing
only USD $1.4 a pack in Indonesia (WHO, 2012).
2 METHODS
This paper uses narrative review methods. Narrative
review involves selecting studies that are compared
and summarised on the basis of the author’s
experience, existing theories and models. The aim of
this paper is an issue review, which is an
investigation of an issue in a specific field of
research. In this paper, the author wants to know
what is the impact of tobacco control policy
implementation for health in Indonesia.
3 RESULTS
Despite the fact that a pack of cigarettes in Indonesia
is cheaper than in other countries, the Indonesian
government actually tried to increase the nominal
cigarette price in 2010, but Indonesia still has among
the world’s cheapest and most affordable cigarettes.
Due to the increase of tobacco consumption and the
increasing demand for cigarettes, the Indonesian
government made a new policy. Increasing the
excise tax has the potential not only to generate
Saprilla, A.
Impact of Tobacco Control Policy for Health in Indonesia.
In Proceedings of the 4th Annual Meeting of the Indonesian Health Economics Association (INAHEA 2017), pages 51-53
ISBN: 978-989-758-335-3
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
51

additional revenues for the government, but also
reduce cigarette consumption. Excise taxes on
cigarettes was increased from 38% to 44% and, then,
from 44% to 46%, but that is still below the
maximum allowed by the country’s national tax law.
However, the tobacco industry is also a great source
of income for the government through excises and
taxes. The cigarette industry absorbs a lot of workers
with skills and low formal education, so this is very
helpful to the government’s effort in reducing
unemployment rate in Indonesia.
In the other hand, the development of the
cigarette industry in Indonesia has another effect,
especially concerning health. Widespread
consumption of tobacco products in Indonesia
implies negative consequences for the general health
of the Indonesian population. Some of the adverse
health effects include high prevalence of many
diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular, respiratory
system disease, etc. This condition will prove fatal if
there is no policy that regulates the high level of
cigarette consumption, as the data showed that there
are 53.7 million active adult smokers and 2.6 million
active youth smokers in Indonesia. The youth
population is a valuable asset to the economy,
provided it can be absorbed by employment
opportunities. Health is important to remain
productive (South East Asia Tobacco Control
Alliance. 2016).
It is undeniable that the tobacco industry also has
a negative impact on consumer health, such as costs
incurred for long-term medical expenses, lost
employment due to declining health conditions, and
effects on the health of passive smokers. Therefore,
it needs to be measured, calculated and tested as to
whether the benefits received by society,
government, corporations and employees are
comparable, greater, or less than the loss to be
borne. Therefore, the government should pay more
attention to making a firm policy to protect all
elements. The government must be able to look at
things from multiple perspectives, not just from the
economic field. The policies made must be able to
reduce the impact of the cost burden of cigarette-
related disease.
4 DISCUSSION
The economic and social costs incurred by tobacco
consumption continue to increase and this burden is
largely borne by the poor. The annual rate of
cigarette losses reaches 200 million US dollars,
while the number of deaths from smoking-related
diseases continues to increase. In Indonesia, the total
cost of tobacco consumption in 2005, which
includes direct costs at the household level and
indirect costs due to loss of productivity due to
premature death, illness and disability was US $18.5
billion. This amount was about five times higher
than the excise revenue of US $3.62 billion in 2005.
(1 US $ = Rp 8.500,00) (Barber, 2014).
The government needs to make regulations
protecting children and teenagers from the
aggressive efforts of the tobacco industry to capture
them as long-term consumers and damage the
present and future generations. Child and adolescent
protection efforts from the dangers of smoking to
reduce their access to cigarettes can be achieved by,
among other things, raising the price of cigarettes,
forbidding sale of cigarettes to persons under 18 and
prohibiting the sale of bar cigarettes.
The government has a duty and authority to
protect through increase in excise duty, a thorough
ban on tobacco advertising, application of non-
smoking areas, and creating warnings of health
effects through the use of pictures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued
the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
(FCTC), which is an international treaty, and
became effective on February 27, 2005. The FCTC
aims to protect current and future generations from
health, social, environmental and economic
consequences caused by smoking and exposure to
smoke. In addition, to attract the world’s attention to
the problem of the tobacco epidemic, in 1987, the
WHO created a World No Tobacco Day,
commemorated annually every May 31 (WHO,
2012).
Indonesia is an agricultural country with most of
its people working as farmers, some of whom are
tobacco farmers. This matter ultimately lead to pros
and cons against various government policies related
to the control of cigarette in Indonesia. Pro groups
support government policy with the idea that it can
reduce the negative effects of high cigarette
consumption, whereas the con groups consider that
the policies will harm tobacco farmers, who are
mostly from the middle to lower class. Therefore, it
is necessary to have a policy review planning related
to cigarette control to reduce the pros and cons. The
policy review is expected to produce a new policy
that does not harm any party. In addition, it can also
provide tobacco use interventions and training to
produce products other than cigarettes, so that
tobacco farmers can still be productive.
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5 CONCLUSIONS
The Indonesian government is expected to be able to
overcome the various problems of the pros and cons
related to tobacco control policy in order not to
cause turmoil in society. The government should
also seek tobacco management interventions and
training into other products that continue to produce
economic value. In addition, the need for
socialisation to change the paradigm of society so
that the benefits of taxing the cigarette industry does
not benefit the country, but bears the burden of
health costs to treatment of disease caused by
consumption of cigarettes.
REFERENCES
Barber, Sarah., 2014. Tobacco Economics in Indonesia.
University of California, Berkeley
Ministry of Health Republic of Indonesia., 2014. “Global
Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS)”
Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance., 2016.
“Tobacco Industry Interference Index: 2016 ASEAN
Report on Implementation of WHO Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control”
World Health Organization., 2012. ”Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control”
Impact of Tobacco Control Policy for Health in Indonesia
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