Tobacco Farmers: Prohibition Of Sales Of Batangan Cigarettes Weight Business Actors From Hulu To Hilir

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The plan to prohibit the sale of cigarette bars which will be outlined in government regulations (PP) in 2023 will burden tobacco business actors from upstream to downstream. This was stated by the General Chairperson of the National Leadership Council (DPN) of the Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association (APTI) Agus Parmuji

Agus Parmuji in Temanggung, Saturday, December 31, said that cigarette excise that has risen high along with that cigarette or retail cannot be sold means that it prohibits a product from being traded.

"When the price of cigarettes is high, retail should not be sold, it will affect the market share, when the weak market product from the absorption tobacco will be weak as well," he said. quoted from Antara.

According to him, another impact will have an impact on the economic decline in the tobacco sector which is a mainstay in a number of regions, especially four large tobacco-producing provinces, namely East Java, Central Java, NTB, and West Java.

Another impact, when the absorption weakens, the price of tobacco will decrease and of course the tobacco farmers will feel it.

"The next impact will definitely be used by multinational business corporations, there are cigarettes but the raw materials are imported," he said.

He hopes that APTI can have a dialogue with the President to provide input according to the facts on the ground.

"This country should not make decisions based on emotion on inappropriate inputs so that millions of these people cry because the economy will be squeezed," he said.

According to him, PP No. 109 of 2012 concerning Safeguarding Materials Containing Addictive Substances in the Form of Tobacco Products for Health should not be tampered with anymore because it is burdensome and almost 80 percent of the articles are adopted from the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).