House mulls review of nicotine and tar limits

House mulls review of nicotine and tar limits

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives proposed on Monday
the establishment of a special team to review the government's
restriction on nicotine and tar content in clove cigarettes.

Legislators from the House's Commission V for industry and
trade affairs agreed in a hearing with the Federation of
Indonesian Cigarette Producers (Gappri) that the team was needed
to ensure the restriction was fair to local cigarette makers.

According to the legislators, the team should comprise of
Gappri representatives, the commission, as well as
representatives from the government as decision makers.

"We welcome the opportunity to present our views to the
government," Ismanu said after a hearing with the House's
Commission V.

Indonesians smoke 202 billion cigarettes a year, almost 90
percent of which are clove-blended cigarettes which have a higher
content of nicotine and tar.

Nicotine and tar content in handmade clove-blended cigarettes
is averaged at 60 milligrams nicotine and 5 milligrams tar, while
machine-made local cigarettes contain 50 milligrams nicotine and
2.5 milligrams tar.

The government issued a decree in October last year which
requires all cigarettes produced and sold in Indonesia to contain
a maximum of 20 milligrams of nicotine and 1.5 milligrams of tar
as was suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The decree stated that implementation would start two years
from the date of issuance for industries producing machine-made
cigarettes, and between five to 10 years for hand-made
cigarettes.

The deadline, considered to be too soon especially for small
scale cigarette producers, was then reviewed in Governmental
Decree No. 38/2000.

The new decree stipulates that implementation is to start in
two years for machine-made white cigarette producers, seven years
for machine-made clove cigarette producers, and 10 years for
handmade clove cigarette producers.

However according to Ismanu, the government should give a
transitional period of up to 15 years especially for small-scale
entrepreneurs.

Ismanu said cigarette companies in general were still using
simple technology so the tar and nicotine levels of their
products were still high. Smaller scale enterprises in particular
would suffer the most because they lack the technology and the
capital to comply with the standard.

Ismanu said that special treatment and dispensation should be
given for handmade clove-blended cigarettes.

"We from Gappri want handmade kreteks (clove-blended
cigarettes) to be treated as a special case, like cigars, because
it is impossible to comply with the standard they want," he said.

Ismanu said that the government had been inconsistent in
dealing with cigarette producers.

On one hand the government wants cigarettes to be limited, on
the other hand it wants the industry to pay as much excise tax as
possible to finance state budget.

The government expects Rp 10.3 trillion ($1.14 billion) income
from excise tax this year, and Rp 16.3 trillion in 2001.

As of September 2000, Gappri recorded production of 168.3
million cigarettes and paid Rp 9.9 trillion in excise tax, Ismanu
said. (tnt)