COLOMBO (News 1st); The National Tobacco and Alcohol Authority (NATA) of Sri Lanka hopes to introduce a tax formula to determine the price of a cigarette in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Samadhi Rajapaksa, the Chairman of NATA, said on Thursday (30) that if the tax formula is implemented, government revenue will grow rapidly, with an increase of 6% per year.
He also noted that the tax formula will also make it difficult to buy cigarettes.
“When this happens, Sri Lanka will be able to reduce the number of smokers,” he said during a briefing to the Department of Government Information.
He said that the respective tax formula will be presented to the Cabinet and that the formula consists of 6 separate elements, namely the cigarette tax percentage, the proposed price for the coming years, the inflation percentage, the price present, the GDP and the external factor of 4%.
He said the 4% external factor is added to ensure that the price of a cigarette increases every year, even if inflation drops to zero.
The NATA Chairman said that when this formula is implemented, there can be NO influence by any entity to determine the price of a cigarette.
He said the formula was prepared by local and international experts and once applied it will become national policy to determine the price of a cigarette.
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