KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. Global citizens through “Take A Part” movement urged the government of Indonesia to immediately execute tobacco product excise structure simplification. The current excise tariff structure is deemed to ease teenagers’ access to cheap cigarettes.

“We urge the government of #Indonesia to simplify the #TobaccoTax structure. The current tax structure leads to “high variations in #cigarette prices”, allowing youth easy access to cheap #TobaccoIndustry products,” wrote Take A Part in its official Twitter account.

Take A Part is a global citizen movement that focuses on providing suggestions to the governments worldwide for tobacco control, especially for children and teenagers. This movement is a collaboration of several anti-tobacco organizations and communities that support tobacco control.

Baca Juga: Indonesia c.bank holds rates amid growing COVID-19 crisis

Senior Advisor of Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Rafendi Djamin appreciated the attention by global citizens, including Take A Part. He deemed their efforts to push the Indonesian government to simplify the complicated cigarette excise tariff structure shows relevance to human rights, especially to public health.

“The right to be healthy is a human right, which is mentioned in the UN Declaration. The right to be healthy is inclusive. Therefore, from the human rights perspective, it highlights and should focus more to the vulnerable groups. In terms of Indonesia, the tax instrument is a part of it,” said Rafendi in Jakarta, Wednesday (7/21).

He explained that there are three aspects of human rights that are not fulfilled by unideal excise policy such as the complex excise tariff structure. First, is the aspect of appreciation which is included in the context of tobacco control.

Editor: Yudho Winarto