Australia raises taxes on tobacco to fight cancer

Canberra, Aug 1 (reporter Xu Haijing) Australian Treasury Minister Chris Bowen and health and medical research minister Tanya priberseck jointly issued a statement on Aug 1, announcing that Australia will increase tobacco tax by 12.5% every year in the next four years to treat tobacco-related cancer and help the federal government regain the fiscal surplus The statement said 15000 Australians die every year from smoking related diseases This kind of disease is one of the most preventable diseases Smoking causes about 31 billion Australian dollars (170 billion yuan) of economic losses to Australia every year Raising tobacco taxes is the most effective way for the government to combat such deaths and smoking related diseases The increase in the tobacco tax will bring a total of 5.3 billion Australian dollars (29 billion yuan) to the federal budget The increase will start on December 1, 2014, 2015 and September 1, 2016, respectively According to the statement, the benefits of raising the tobacco tax will be mainly used in three aspects: first, it will be used to treat smoking related cancer, stroke and other diseases; second, it will be used to prevent teenagers from smoking; and third, it will be used to fill the state treasury.