China Considers Raising Taxes to Cut Tobacco Use

China is studying the possibility of increasing prices and tax hikes to curb tobacco consumption, reports China Radio International. A senior official with the country’s tobacco use regulator, Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), says the effects of raising tobacco prices in order to curb tobacco use need to be tested in practice, given that tobacco prices and the tax on tobacco are already at a high level in China. Miao earlier admitted that more efforts are needed to control tobacco use and curb the number of smokers, which in China is now 350 million.