China's tobacco industry generated 388 billion yuan (53.5
billion U.S. dollars) in taxes and profits last year, a 25 percent
year-on-year increase, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration
(STMA) announced on Monday.
The STMA, who regulate the country's tobacco market and operates
through the China National Tobacco Corporation, didn't elaborate on
the growth.
By calculation, tobacco industry taxes and profits will account
for about eight percent of the country's fiscal revenues, which are
expected to reach five trillion yuan in 2007.
China, the world's largest tobacco producing and consuming
country, represents more than a third of the global total on both
counts. It has more than 350 million smokers, among which about 50
million are teens.
In addition, almost one million die from smoking-related
diseases annually, according to the Ministry of Health.
The number may rise to 2.2 million annually before 2020 if the
smoking rate does not decline, World Health Organization
representative in China Henk Bekedam warned in May.
About 540 million Chinese suffer from the effects of secondhand
smoke and more than 100,000 die annually from disease caused by
passive smoking, the ministry said in its 2007 Report on China's
Smoking Control.
China will ban all tobacco adverts and related promotions and
sponsorships by 2011. Such promotion is a major source of
misleading tobacco information communicated to teens.
(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2008)
