President decries politicisation of tobacco control, urges "opposition" businesses to abandon trade
A digest of yesterday's top story.
03 Apr, 9:00 AM
President Dr Mohamed Muizzu stirred controversy by linking tobacco sellers to the opposition, urging them to transition to alternate businesses and alleging politicisation of the government’s efforts to discourage smoking.
“It is politicised too, okay, very much politicised. Then when I look at it, the people involved in selling cigarettes are people from the political ideology opposed to us. They are providing assistance to protests as well. I would get information, wouldn’t I? They would want, what can I say, to bring an end to the ban,” he said in the second episode of a new podcast produced by the President's Office.
In Wednesday's episode, Muizzu acknowledged the unpopularity of the sweeping vape ban and hiked tariffs that drove up the average price of a pack of cigarettes from MVR 110 (US$ 7) to MVR 250 in November.
Many people have messaged with complaints, including parents who were providing financial support to adult children who could no longer afford their smoking habit, he said.
But incremental tax increases would not solve the problem and would only benefit cigarette importers, he continued: “I urge those who import and sell cigarettes to give up that business, do something else. This isn’t something you should do. This is a small country. This isn’t a place with millions of people. Why do you need to do that here? Wouldn’t it be better if we save our small community from this?”
He outlined proposals for a generational tobacco ban under consideration. The options include prohibiting smoking for persons born after 2000, 2004 or 2007, he said.
But the president’s branding of tobacco businesses as opposition-aligned drew criticism on social media.
“Those with a different political ideology to you shouldn’t even do business! You can’t talk like this about people paying taxes to the government within laws and regulations,” former finance minister Ibrahim Ameer tweeted, accusing Muizzu of incompetency and inability to govern by treating all citizens equally and fairly.
Tobacco businesses expressed concern over the president singling them out. “We are wondering why he is only talking about cigarettes? Why don’t we stop selling alcohol and pork?” an anonymous business owner told Adhadhu.
According to Adhadhu, the owners of the two main tobacco importers, CGT and Blenx, are not active in any political party. But the main shareholder of Blenx is the husband of Social and Family Welfare Minister Aishath Shiham.
The previous Maldivian Democratic Party government was accused of unduly favouring CGT, whose shareholders included the then-ruling party’s former finance chief. In March 2019, Customs lost a US$ 1.4 million lawsuit against CGT after the Attorney General’s office changed its stand and backed the claim by the country’s largest tobacco wholesaler.