DILI, 21 july 2023 (TATOLI)— The National Alliance for Tobacco Control in Timor-Leste (ANCT-TL) has identified 17 types of illegal tobacco that continue to be commercialized in three municipalities of Dili, Aileu, and Ermera.
“We conducted a market survey from March to June 2023 and identified the spread of 17 types of illegal tobacco that still exist and are commercialized in shops, in Dili, Aileu, and Ermera,” ANCT-TL Senior Coordinator, Manuel Isac Maubesi told the media at press conference in Bairopite, this Friday.
He added that the 17 types of tobacco consisted of stickers for Red Marlboro, Sampoerna, Dunhill, Marlboro white stickers, Arrow Black, Lucky Strike, ESSE Change, Thanos Gold, Surya 12, LA light, Evolution, GEZE Crete, Surya 12, Surya 16 and Orbit.
“ANCT-TL used 400 samples of illegal tobacco to conduct the survey,” he said.
ANCT-TL also identified that among the 17 types of illegal tobacco, three types were widely consumed by consumers, including Surya 63%, ESSE 25%, and Arrow Black 42% which were mostly sold in traditional markets.
According to Maubesi, all illegal tobacco is 100% imported from Indonesia and ANCT-TL also identified that illegal tobacco is mostly sold by small vendors, street vendors, traditional markets, mobile vendors, and shops.
ANCT-TL considers the existence of illegal tobacco in Timor-Leste as a major challenge for the relevant government agencies to effectively implement the tobacco control law in the country, and the related agencies do not effectively control the price of tobacco on the national market.
“The government will also lose the tobacco tax collected from Customs. Thus, the high presence of illegal cigarettes can have a major impact on public health,” he explained.
Following this situation, ANCT-TL provides several recommendations to the relevant Ministry and Institution for implementing the tobacco law effectively.
Journalist: Jose Belarmino De Sa
Editor: Nelia
