Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau has said raising the tobacco tax is the most effective way to reduce the number of smokers in the city. Lam Cheung-fu, head of the Coalition of Newspaper and Magazine Merchants, which represents over 35,000 newsstands, said vendors would suffer big income losses anticipates that four out of five newsstands would shutter if the tobacco tax is raised further. Stalls selling tobacco products had earned two-thirds of their income from cigarettes, he added, but that dropped by half following the tax increase in February. He said the tobacco tax increase would only encourage smokers to purchase illicit cigarettes. "It's common to see advertisements and sales of illicit cigarettes everywhere, on websites, social media and communication apps, while some posters of illicit cigarettes can be seen in tea restaurants and fruit stalls," Lam said.
