BusinessPrices of cigarettes in Sri Lanka are the highest in the Asia Pacific region and the second highest in the world with the island rapidly turning into a cigarette smugglers ‘paradise’. RIU has prepared the report in collaboration with the Big Issue Magazine. He said the policy on tobacco should focus on achieving two important objectives – reduce the negative health impact of tobacco consumption while securing government taxation revenue with the tobacco industry being one of the largest contributors. According to the report, other ancillary issues that are interwoven to this critical industry also impacted it such as the beedi manufacturing and tobacco growing. This affects cigarette sales and due to this fact they are unable to sell their tobacco cultivation to the company.

Source: Sunday Times March 21, 2018 03:11 UTC