Health tax to be levied on cigarettes
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
The Turkish government has decided to implement a 1.5 Turkish Liras health tax on cigarettes to combat smoking related health expenses which amount to 2.8 billion liras or 9 percent of the country’s total medical expenses, according to a report prepared in tandem by the World Health Organization and Turkish Social Security Institution (SGK).“There is no freedom in suicide,” wrote Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the report’s preface, stressing his commitment to fight the rising consumption of cigarettes.
“I love our people. I don’t want anything that harms them to be around under our watch,” he said in the preface.
