Tobacco proposed as earthquake relief

The earthquake-hit Yunnan province's application for an increased quota on cigarette production to boost tobacco tax and help with disaster relief has ignited public criticism.

Multiple earthquakes hit a mountainous area in Yunnan on Sept 7, leaving 81 people dead and 821 injured.

To allegedly bolster future reconstruction, the provincial economic planning body has made application to the National Development and Reform Commission, asking for permission to increase cigarette production by 400,000 boxes, china.org.cn reported on Tuesday.

If given the green light, that would help the province land 600 million yuan ($94.7 million) in additional tobacco tax, which would go to reconstruction work in quake-hit areas, according to the Yunnan Development and Reform Commission.

In China, the tobacco industry, a long-term source for taxation, is under State monopoly. Production of products like cigarettes is made to quotas set by the NDRC, the country's economic planner, said Wang Ke'an, an anti-tobacco campaigner from the ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, an NGO committed to smoking control.

"The NDRC shouldn't give its nod as it's absurd to use the money from selling death to help with disaster relief," he told China Daily on Tuesday.

China has more than 300 million smokers. Every year more than 1 million die from smoking-related diseases, according to the Ministry of Health.

"We may write an open letter to the NDRC asking them not to give Yunnan the permission," he added.

Wu Yiqun, also with the NGO, said if the application is permitted, the tobacco industry will further strengthen its advertising campaigns, which would ultimately hurt the public.

"At present, we don't see that cigarette supplies have failed to meet demand and the earthquake shouldn't be used as an excuse to boost the industry, which has been killing people," she said. "I don't think that the central government would depend on tobacco sales for disaster relief."

As of Tuesday, the central government had allocated 750 million yuan for quake relief and reconstruction efforts in Yunnan, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Disaster relief materials, including 10,000 tents, 20,000 quilts and 20,000 cotton-padded overcoats, have been sent to quake-hit areas, the ministry said.

Huang Jinrong, a Beijing lawyer, said giving a permit was not legally correct.

China signed the World Heath Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2003 and made it effective as of January 2006, he said.

Under that agreement, signatory countries are obliged to reduce tobacco production and sales.