Parliament Secretariat has tabled the voting of the bill on duty hikes for cigarettes and energy drinks for Wednesday’s sitting.

This is the only item on the agenda for the day.

After the MPs at the Economic Committee had divided soft drinks and energy drinks into two categories and maintained the import and export duties levied on these goods to 15 percent. An additional MVR 4.60 would be charged from every liter.

Parliamentarians further voted to charge MVR 33.64 from every liter, for energy drinks.

The bill further places an import and export duty of 25 percent, and MVR 2 would be charged from every cigarette imported, a considerable lift from MVR 0.90 that was charged before.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Customs Service, and the Tobacco Control Board were summoned to review the duty hikes. The HPA noted last week that there is a stark lack in funds and effort dedicated towards raising awareness about the risks of smoking. However, the Customs said that it generates an annual revenue of MVR 622 million, from duties placed on tobacco import alone.

In a reeling statistic, the HPA also revealed that up to 80 percent of underage smokers in the Maldives, buy cigarettes themselves, which is also indicative of public inattentiveness to tobacco use. State Minister for Health, Aishath Rameela also said that the HPA’s budget of MVR 3.5 million would barely allow the agency to purchase various vaccines and other medicine, with nothing left for such awareness efforts.

The bill will come into effect, once President ratifies the bill and once published in the Gazette.