Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Minister of Health (Menkes RI), Budi Gunadi Sadikin, revealed that Indonesia loses up to trillions of rupiah due to active smoking. In this way, his party will promote cigarette regulations in the country in order to reduce state expenditure figures.

Budi said that the health burden borne by the state due to diseases caused by smoking is much greater than the income obtained from Beka Excise. He revealed that state losses were even more than IDR 10 trillion.

“The health burden incurred due to chronic lung disease is far greater than Customs and Excise income,” stressed Budi when met at the Ministry of Health Office (Kemenkes RI), Jakarta, Tuesday (4/6/2024).

In detail, Budi revealed that Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), one of which is caused by pollution from cigarette smoke, costs the health budget more than IDR 10 trillion. According to him, this number only comes from the records of the Health Social Security Administering Agency (BPJS Health).

“COPD during yesterday's pollution, it was probably above IDR 10 trillion. More than IDR 10 trillion, yes. That's what was recorded in BPJS, yes, not outside BPJS,” said Budi.

The minister, who is often called BGS, emphasized that cigarettes, both conventional, aka tobacco and electronic, are one of the causes of lung disease in Indonesia. He revealed that until now, there are still many cases of lung disease, especially cancer, that have not been detected in Indonesia.

“Smoking is one of the biggest causes of lung disease, yes. That doesn't count lung cancer, yes,” said BGS.

“Lung cancer, right, is the number one killer of men for cancer. That's also big and there are still many of them undetected (not detected). “So, we don't know why he died, even though it was actually because of cancer,” he continued.

According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the prevalence of active smoking in Indonesia continues to increase every year. Based on data from the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey (SKI), the number of active smokers in Indonesia is predicted to reach 70 million people.

Based on the same survey data, children and teenagers aged 10 to 18 years were the group with the highest increase in the number of smokers, namely 7.4 percent. In detail, the age group 15 to 19 years is the largest group of smokers, namely 56.5 percent, followed by those aged 10 to 14 years, namely 18.4 percent.

Meanwhile, electronic cigarette users among teenagers have also increased in the last four years. According to data from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in 2021, the prevalence of e-cigarettes will be three percent.

In order to reduce the number of smokers in the country, Budi said that the government would immediately ratify the Health Government Regulation Draft (RPP). In the RPP, the government will regulate e-cigarettes and advertisements for conventional cigarettes.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(rns/rns)