The Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on Health, Mass Media and Women’s Empowerment has agreed in principle to ban single-stick sales of cigarettes and increase taxes on tobacco products, according to parliamentary sources.
The decision was reached during an institutional review of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) held recently in Parliament. The meeting was chaired by MP Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe.
During the review, NATA officials informed the committee that approximately 22,000 deaths occurred annually in Sri Lanka due to tobacco and alcohol consumption. They said the country suffered an economic loss of between Rs. 225 billion and Rs. 240 billion each year due to the consumption of tobacco products and alcohol.
Officials told the committee that steps were underway to amend the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol Act to grant it more powers.
Noting that 104 countries had already banned the sale of loose cigarettes, the underscored the need for Sri Lanka to adopt a similar policy. When loose cigarettes were sold, mandatory health warnings on cigarette packets were not visible to consumers, the NATA officials said.
The committee was also briefed on the importance of imposing taxes on cigarettes after determining their retail prices, as part of broader measures aimed at reducing tobacco consumption.
Commenting on the matter, Dr. Abeysinghe said the committee was prepared to extend its full support for the proposed amendments to the Act, as well as for other programmes and initiatives undertaken by the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol.
Deputy Chair of the Committees Hemali Weerasekara, committee members MPs Dayasiri Jayasekara, Muneer Mulaffer, Samanmali Gunasinghe, Prof Sena Nanayakkara, Dr S. Sri Bhavanandarajah, Dr Ramanathan Archchuna and with the permission of the Chair, MPs Dr. Janaka Senarathna and Dr Pathmanathan Sathiyalingam were present at the committee meeting.