Cigarette, gives advantages or disadvantages for Indonesia?

Cigarette, gives advantages or disadvantages for Indonesia?

According to Tobacco Atlas 3^rd edition, 2009, Indonesia is the most cigarette users in ASEAN by 46, 16% user and the third in the world after China and India. This is not surprising news because cigarette is a common thing in our society. Not only adult people, teenagers also smoke cigarette. Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) stated that Indonesia is a country with the highest rate of teenage smoker. On the other side, cigarette companies have given many incomes from its tax. They also provide the employment for the unemployed people. In this case, cigarette still being debated around our society, some people argue that cigarette can give advantages for our country. But, some people also argue that cigarette has given many disadvantages for Indonesia. Actually, both of them are true. Why? For several reasons, cigarette gives many advantages. For the other reasons, cigarette also gives bad negative effect for Indonesia. The advantages of cigarette can be seen from tax and employment while the disadvantages of cigarette can be seen from health and life cost.

The first advantage of cigarette is taxable income. Cigarette tax is one of the biggest incomes for Indonesia. 10% of state budget income of Indonesia comes from cigarettes. From 1998 till 2008, Cigarette tax receipts have increased 29 times. It happens because the cigarette of Indonesia is not only used by Indonesian people. Many people of other countries who smoke cigarette also smoke cigarettes from Indonesia. There are some brands of Indonesian cigarette that had known in the other countries like Sampoerna, Gudang Garam and Djarum.  Many people don’t realize that the income for cigarette may give the some good impact. The government can create some scholarship is also helped by the tax from cigarette. The tax of cigarette can be a fundamental factor of economy for Indonesia because it helps the government to do some developments in our country.

The second advantage is employment. According to Ditjen Bea Cukai, there are 1664 companies which are involved in the cigarette industry. Those companies provide many employments for the people who don’t work yet. There are over 6.2 million peoples who work in the cigarette industry. It helps government to overcome the problem about the employment. When the problem about employment can be decreased, the rate of criminal also decreased.  Cigarette companies also require tobacco as the main ingredient of cigarette. It makes tobacco farmers do not have to worry about the marketing of their products because they have a partner to buy their tobacco.

Beside advantages, the cigarette also has disadvantages. The first advantage can be seen is from health side. Many researchers have discovered that there are over 4000 toxic substances in a cigarette like Arsenic (found in rat poison), Ammonia (found in household cleaners), Benzene (found in rubber cement), Butane (found in lighter fluid), Carbon Monoxide (found in car fumes), Tar (found in roads), nicotine and also tar. The toxic substances may cause many diseases like cancer, making arteries thinner and smaller, and constant bronchitis. According to the research that has been conducted by University of Indonesia, there are about 500 peoples dying every day because of smoking. The data in 2010 showed that there 190.260 people die because of smoking. This can a be serious problem that is caused by cigarettes.

The other disadvantage is from life cost. Life cost of smoker must be different with life cost of a non-smoker. Smokers may spend two packs of cigarettes a day. If the price of a pack is Rp.15, 000, they spent 30,000 just for smoking. If we compare it with the non-smoker, they can spend Rp.30, 000 for buying food or the others that may important in their daily life. This is similar to data from a national health survey in 2011 of The Central Agency of Statistics which states that smoking is in the second rank in spending in the household. Smoking is only lower than grains and higher than electricity, telephone, health costs and the cost of education. This probably is not a problem for households that have a great income, but how about the families who have a small income? Of course it will be a serious problem.

In conclusion, whether cigarettes could benefit or no benefit may depend on the view of the person. They may say that smoking has positive impacts because it gives a lot of income for the country and provide employment because they see it from that point of view. But for those who believe that smoking can damage health because they contain dangerous materials and can add to the cost of living just to buy cigarettes because they see the negative side of the cigarette itself.