The truth about Ceylon Tobacco Company "generosity" towards the country
by Prof. Carlo Fonseka
A banner headlined in the Financial Review of 3rd February 2010 proclaims; ‘Government earns Rs. 52.4 bn from tobacco co". The Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC) never tires of telling the public of its great generosity to the country. Proof of its generosity is that it contributes billions of rupees to government coffers.
The impression that is sort to be created is that it voluntarily contributes vast sums out of its profits for public welfare. Indeed, it seeks to imply that it is glad of the opportunity given to it to contribute so generously to government revenue. It appears to be ready to gives even more money to the people of this country through taxes paid to their government.
One does not, of course, expect the CTC to tell the world that theirs is the only manufactured product which when used as intended, kills no less that half it users. Readers who rub their eyes in disbelief may rest assured that the statistic is starkly true.
To match its financial generosity to the government, the CTC may declare that it sincerely regrets all the deaths (about 20,000 a year in Sri Lanka) and the illness it is responsible for in the process of making its contribution. Before long, the industry may claim that its contribution by way of taxes helps substantially to run our free health services which cares for its countless victims who are not actually killed.
The world over, the tobacco industry plugs the same propaganda line. Anybody who has read Harvard Professor Alan M. Brandt’s authoritative book called The Tobacco Century will know the name of the game, the tobacco industry plays in country after country. In actual fact, the industry systematically lobbies the government to ensure that taxes remain low. In Sri Lanka, tax on tobacco is one of the lowest in the region, if not in the world.
The industry also profits from tax evasion through smuggled cigarettes. It is a well documented fact that the tobacco industry is itself a big time player in the smuggling game.
The transfer of money from smokers (mostly low income and poorly educated) to the government through the CTC is a highly inefficient process. The truth is that the CTC keeps most of the money and hands over only a small proportion of it to the government.
During the process, thousands of people including non-smoking children and women are sickened through exposure to thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke. During a recent anti-tobacco parade held at Hakmana, organized by Dr. Suranga Ubeysekara, MOH, Hakmana, there was a placard, which claimed that the people of the area received 20 lakhs of rupees by way of Samurdhi grants and they spent 40 lakhs of rupees on tobacco products.
So much for the generosity of the tobacco industry to the people of this country.
The bluff about the corporate social responsibility and generosity of the tobacco industry to the public has been called many times but it bears repetition.
The industry is hell-bent on profiting from the addiction of smokers to tobacco; it does not give a damn to anything else.
(Prof. Carlo Fonseka is Chairman, National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol)
9 Comments
Dear Dr. Carlo, It is me Harsha Mutucumarana. Thanks for this article of yours. Once, a decade or soi ago ,I got caught to you smoking a cigarette at Punchi Borella. I have got over that dirty habit that allows CTC to make our nation sick fifteen years ago. The word addiction is a myth I think. I cannot believe that I smoked inside crowded buses! Although I spoke for the rights of the common man, I actually had no right to o so while smoking inside buses!I am free now!
This earning money in erroneous ways describes partly why no legitimate government in Sri Lanka managed to do actual good to the masses. (food for thought for MR) The USA and UK have now taken steps to save people smoking and it works! As usual why not follow the West to save the youth!
20000 deaths per year due to smoking ?
It was due to a choice made by them; even a Grade one student knows that tobacco is a killer.
Last year more than 20000 Tamils were SENT to their maker , Certainly the choice was not theirs.
Did you ever worry about them?
Did you ever write about them?
Its an article I have always been looking for..I always wonder why medics don't write about tobacco menace, but leave it to NGO's to shout out for which nobody gives a damn about. If you keep writing and if the other docors do it continuosly, I am sure there will be a differece. I know addiction is not something easy to get out with. I know it because with much effort, I could not stop my dear father's habit and I lost him through smoking. The doctors are trusted, if you keep writing like this, there will definistely be a differece.
Douglas,
I don't know this is your real name!! If your questions are so, then where were you when the buses were exploded, sucide bombing took place, innocent devotees were killed? People like you are curse to the country. Try to pin point your hatrad in every chance you get!!
By the way this is a good article & much more needed to be done on the ground to make people (specially youth)aware of its consequences.
Hi, Carlo!
Being a professor and all that I should have addressed you something like "your worship" or something like that which you anticipate in the back of your mind.
Of course, cigarettes are one of the burning problems of the day, but is that the problem on top of your priority or which you can publish your name without antagonizing the people in power and try to make another impression? You are a miserable failure. It is more like playing the fiddle while Lanka is burning. The Hanumantha and company are now natives and burning the country and you are talking about tobacco! You are an insult to people like Professor Bibile!
Haven't you noticed the enormous amount of money doled out by patients suffering from various illnesses going from pillars to posts while Health Ministry officials make billions overnight by approving drugs that are either placebos or lacking efficacy without batting eyelids. Did you ever think about patients who take ineffective drugs for hypertension, diabetes, carcinoma etc. etc.
For your kind information, no less a person than Dr.Kigsley Heendeniya admitted his son to a private hospital who developed complications in the middle of the night, and he was asked to take this patient to the National Hospital because they were not equipped to handle the case. But to do that he had to pay up the bill in the middle of the night. He could not raise the cash and by the time he was able to raise the cash his loving son was dead!
This is the state of Health Care in our paradise! You have no inclination to highlight what is happening in Sri Lanka Healthcare and instead embark on on a subject you would not be politically hurt!
Saman:
I do not expect a village pumpkin from Sri Lanka to understand the concepts of:
A.Freedom of Speech.
B.Freedom of Expression.
C.Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Hi Ruwan Ferdinandez,
If you are the sidekick of Mangala Samaraweera, why don't you take this message("say no to smoking") to public in upcoming election?
Hey Douglas,
Saman is right and his message is clear.
Tobacco doesn't know anything about ethnic groups. It kills everybody.
I don't want to deviate from the topic but I gotta say this. If a tamil is killed in an accident, it is about Human Rights! If a newspaper delivery guy arrested by police, "A journalist has been arrested again"!.
Harsha,Saman and Sanath;
Professor Carlo has been an "academic" for nearly fifty years.
Based on which study did he come to the following conclusions?
1."smokers are mainly low income and poorly educated"
2."the CTC hands over only a small proportion of the taxes to the government"
3."tobacco industry is itself a big time player in the smuggling game"
LSSP is no more, UPFA had it for lunch!
President Obama IS a SMOKER; Low income? Poorly educated?