COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said he aims to raise the tax on cigarettes to 90 percent as part of measures to reduce smoking and consequent health care costs of treating disease caused by smoking.
The government at the same time would remove value added tax on health care services such as state hospitals outdoor patient clinics, doctor consultations and medicine, he told a news conference.
Taxes on cigarettes sold by the local monopoly Ceylon Tobacco Company, a unit of British American Tobacco, were now in the range of 67-72 percent.
