Impose High Tax On Tobacco In Katsina- CISLAC

 

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The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has called on the Katsina State executive and legislative arms of government and other relevant stakeholders to impose a high tax on tobacco use in the state.

This is to ensure that the price of the commodity is increased which will in turn reduce the demand drastically to the barest minimum.

A Senior Programme Officer of the Centre Solomon Adoga during a multi-sectoral meeting with CSOs, government officials, including the media held on Saturday in the Katsina State capital, said that more people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, and suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol, combined.

He explained that CISLAC extended its campaign and advocacy on tobacco control to Katsina State where tobacco smoking cuts across all genders to implement a project on Tobacco Tax Advocacy in Nigeria with support from Tax Justice Network-Africa TJNA.

“We intend to meet with the Katsina State Executive and Legislative Arms to impose a high tax on tobacco use due to its harmful effect on health, economy, and other consequences,” Adoga noted.

On his part, a member of the Katsina Coalition of Civil Society Organisations Bashir Ruwan-Godiya described the advocacy as timely, advising relevant authorities to also ban the importation and manufacturing of tobacco, which he believes, is the only possible way to deter people from smoking.

Besides economic consequences, tobacco smoking is considered a leading cause of preventable deaths and morbidity, linked to a high burden of lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischemic heart disease, and stroke.

According to PubMed Central (PMC), tobacco smoking accounts for more than 7 million deaths annually with about 10 per cent of these resulting from second-hand smoke.