“Commitment for Tobacco Tax increment in local Government Election Manifesto”
Mar 31 2022A One day interactive workshop session entitled “Commitment for Tobacco Tax increment in Local Government Election Manifesto” was organized by Nepal Cancer Relief Society in Association with Nepal Research Development Institute at Akama Hotel, Dhumbarahi on 31st March 2022, Thursday.
The main objective of the event was to interact and gather political commitment from major political parties of Nepal to include tobacco taxation in their manifesto for the upcoming election. The event was organized to sensitize the political parties about the harm caused by tobacco use and urgent actions needed to control tobacco epidemin in Nepal. The taxation in tobacco will help ensure the right to health as stated in Chapter3, article of Constitution of Nepal 2072.It should be a political agenda of every political parties to increase tobacco tax and ensure the optimal health of their voters.
The program was a success one with the participation of from the representatives of major political parties,medical and public health professionals,civil societies, media personels, mayor of different municipalities, President Nepal Medical Council.
The program was hosted by Mr Vimal Kumar Hoda,General Secretary,NCRS and President of NCRS Mr.Mahesh Shrestha welcomed all the participants and highlight the objectives of the event. There were two technical presentation from the technical experts.Dr Prakash Raj Neupane (MBBS,MS) presented about theobacco and cancer prevalence in Nepal and Dr. Jaya Kumar Gurung (Secretary General ,NDRI) presented about the evidence generated from research on tobacco taxation and illicit trade of cigarettes in Nepal.
The participants actively participated in the discussion program.The representatives from the major political parties expressed their strong political commitment to include tobacco taxation in their manifesto. The president of Nepal Medical Council also put forward his strong to actively participate in anti-tobacco campaign in Nepal. And the event was able to collect different perspectives on tobacco tax increase from varied sector of participants. The workshop was successfully completed in the presence of around 48 participants.