China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of tobacco, raised the commodity’s tax to more than double--from 5 percent to 11 percent--to curb the country’s high rate of smoking, the Ministry of Finance announced on Friday.
In an official statement, the ministry said that effective on May 10, each cigarette will have an additional tax worth 0.005 yuan.
The increased tax rate is expected to provide additional 20 billion yuan worth of taxes from last year's statistic, according to Bloomberg.
The tobacco industry is one of the highest revenue generators in China, providing over 900 billion yuan to the government in 2014.
The move comes after a research showed that there is a significant impact in lowering cigarette consumption as a result of a tax increase.
According to recent figures, China has over 300 million smokers, a number as high as the population of the United States. Meanwhile, a large 740 million crowd are exposed to second-hand smoke annually, the report added.
A more alarming statistic is the number of Chinese people who die because of smoking-related ailments, which hits an annual mark of 1.36 million.
The World Health Organization (WHO) also stated that almost half of Chinese men engage in smoking, one of the highest rates in the world.
Bernhard Schwartlaender, a WHO representative in China, said that the country needs "strong political commitment . . . along with steely determination, to stare down interference from the vested interests of the tobacco industry."
To further deter smokers in China, the government has initiated in 2014 a draft regulation focused on tobacco control. The proposed law includes ban on all form of tobacco product promotion, advertising and sponsorship.