SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – It’s already two weeks into the new year, which means that more than a few smokers will have failed, once again, with their resolution to butt out. Cessation clinics in Korea tend to boom in early January, with smokers excited about the new, healthy lives that they’re about to [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Members of the “I Love Smoking” group gathered outside the National Assembly building in Seoul Thursday demanding that the government repeal Korea’s cigarette price hike, which took effect in January 2015, and raised cigarette prices by 2,000 won ($1.76) per pack. Protestors held pickets alleging that the tobacco policy [...]
SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Korea Bizwire) – A recent report by the National Assembly Budget Office forecasted that the upcoming mandate to include warning images on cigarette packages will help reduce Korea’s tobacco consumption, though the effects will be “limited”. According to the NABO report National Tax Income Forecast 2016 – 2020, total shipments of cigarettes [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – The local affiliates of Phillip Morris and British American Tobacco (BAT) were found to have evaded over 200 billion won ($181 million) in taxes from inventory profits when the Korean government raised the tax levied on cigarettes by roughly 2,000 won in January 2015. According to Korea’s Board of [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – A government report on Wednesday predicted a second straight year of cigarette sales increase in 2017 despite a price hike meant to discourage smoking, giving the state more revenue from taxes levied on each pack. In the report submitted to the parliament by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 30 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean tax authorities are investigating foreign tobacco companies over suspicions that they evaded taxes on huge profits from a tobacco price hike last year, industry sources said Tuesday. Citing the need to discourage smoking, South Korea marked up taxes levied on cigarettes by 2,000 won (US$1.79) in January [...]
SEOUL, July 28 (Korea Bizwire) – A tax on cigarettes is usually implemented to promote public health, but it’s also one of the more frequently employed implicit tax collection methods for governments. However, a recent study revealed that countries with cigarette tax revenue that took up a significant part of their overall tax revenue also [...]
SEOUL, June 22 (Korea Bizwire) – Most cigarette packs sold in South Korea will carry graphic health warning labels on them starting on Dec. 23, in a move to promote people’s health, the government said Wednesday. The government has recently passed a law to introduce a total of 10 graphic health warnings to be placed [...]
SEOUL, June 1 (Korea Bizwire) – May 31 was World No Tobacco Day. Korea also celebrated the event’s 29th anniversary with various stop-smoking events across the country. The Ministry of National Defense announced a policy to reduce soldiers’ smoking rate from the current 40 percent to 30 percent by 2020. It is offering leave to [...]
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) – Sales of mild cigarettes that contain lower levels of tar and nicotine are increasing each year. According to KT&G (the Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corporation), sales of low-tar cigarettes – containing under 1mg of tar and 0.1mg of nicotine – accounted for almost 50 percent of total cigarette sales [...]