Poor Indonesian families spend more on cigarettes

DESPITE their financial hardships, many low-income families in Indonesia prioritise spending on cigarettes rather than on other needs.

According to the 2009 National Socioeconomic survey, poor households spent 19 per cent of their income on staple foods and 11 per cent on tobacco, 2 per cent for education and 3 per cent on health care. Six out of 10 low-income households report spending on cigarettes.

Ekowati Rahajeng, the Health Ministry's director of non-communicable diseases, said the spending habits could be related to the economic conditions that made low-income people resort to smoking cigarettes, without realizing that spending on cigarettes would only pull them deeper into poverty.

Abdillah Hasan from the Demography Institute at the University of Indonesia calculated the potential loss of consuming cigarettes.

'Let's say they consume a pack of cigarettes a day that cost them Rp 10,000 (S$1.42). In a month, they will spend Rp 300,000 and Rp 3.65 million in a year," Mr Abdillah said. He went on, saying that in 10 years they could save Rp 36.5 million, which could be spent on a down-payment for a house, or pay admission fees to a university for their children.

Therefore, the institution urged the government to issue cigarette control regulations through, among other methods, increasing the cigarette tax, a total ban on cigarette advertisement, health warnings through pictures printed on the cigarette packs and imposing smoke-free areas.