Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne said that increasing the tobacco taxes up to 90 per cent would help reduce smoking by 4.5 per cent. Dr Senaratne had pledged to submit a cabinet paper to have the government increase taxes on tobacco up to 90 per cent from the current 72 per cent. He said the move would help the government to remove the health service from value added tax as a result.

Dr Senaratne hoped to submit a joint cabinet paper with President Maithipala Sirisena whom he said had agreed to support him in his battle against tobacco. The tobacco company had requested discussions with the Health Minister, who had turned it down on grounds that all discussions with the company authority had been held by President Sirisena when he was the country’s Health Minister and the tussle with tobacco was initiated.