Cigarette Consumption a Burden to National Health Insurance: Sri Mulyani

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Monday explains that the national cigarette consumption has greatly burdened the national health insurance (JKN), with numbers ranging between Rp17.9 trillion and Rp27.7 trillion annually. 

Of the amount, up to Rp15 trillion are treatment costs covered by the Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan), Bisnis.com reported. 

“This means that 20-30 percent from the beneficiary (PBI) of the Rp48.8 trillion JKN are used to treat the effects of the cigarette,” said Sri Mulyani in a press conference on tobacco excise of 2022 on December 13. 

The loss of productive years caused by disease, disabilities, and early deaths caused by smoking cost up to Rp374 trillion in 2015. 

According to the minister, the government uses excise policy instruments to control cigarette consumption, especially among children and adolescents. Especially considering the growth of child smokers from 7.2 percent in 2013 to 9.1 percent in 2018. 

Indonesia has set a goal to reduce smoking prevalence among children to 8.7 percent by the year 2024. Sri explains that tax and excise are crucial instruments determining the smoking prevalence in society. Cigarette tax was not increased in 2019 which directly caused the spike in smoking prevalence among children up to 9.9 percent.

“After we increased it again, there was a drop from 2019 to 2020 to 9 percent,” said Sri Mulyani.

Read: Sri Mulyani: Tobacco Tax Increase Hoped to Slash Cigarette Production

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