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Indonesia’s neverending battle against illegal cigarettes
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Consequences: Critics say the country is facing a serious and tough illegal cigarette problem because the regulations for illegal cigarettes are not strong enough. (Unsplash/Sara Kurfess)
. (Unsplash/Sara Kurfess) (Unsplash/Sara Kurfess)
Illegal cigarettes have lost Indonesia trillions, straining the effort of controlling cigarette consumption.
In the last few years, the number of illegal cigarette companies and makers has increased, even after the government implemented a regulation to control illegal cigarettes, or Law No. 39/2007, which sets a legal framework for tobacco production.
The law stipulates that 2 percent of the excise tax on tobacco products is to be used for the improvement of raw materials, the development of the tobacco industry, social development, the enforcement of excise regulations and the prevention of the production and sale of illicit tobacco products.
In 2018, the Customs and Excise Directorate General office in Malang, East Java, seized around 7 million illegal machine-rolled cigarettes. Between 2019 and 2021, the authority confiscated a total of 36 million cigarettes, while in the first quarter of 2022, it found slightly over 6 million illegal machine-rolled cigarettes. Still, illegal — and therefore cheaper — tobacco products can be found online through the keywords rokok non-pita (non-taxed cigarettes).
According to a February 2022 report by Kompas, the existence of illegal cigarettes has cost the government Rp 53.18 trillion (US$ 3 billion). Additionally, the government is unable to control the number of cigarettes consumed in the country.
Indonesia is one of the biggest cigarette consumers in the world. In 2018, the Basic Health Survey (Riskesdas) revealed that the share of smokers among people aged 15 and above was 33.8 percent, the highest in the world. The smoking prevalence was 62.9 percent among males and 4.8 percent among females, still high despite the warning that the product is loaded with toxins posing serious health risks.
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