Financial Times - New tobacco, alcohol laws unlikely to cut consumption

New laws passed in parliament to establish a National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol is unlikely to reduce consumption as originally anticipated.

The Act awaiting gazette notification has seen some of its original provisions watered down, leaving it less stringent than the legislation intended.

"The Act directly deals with advertising. It doesn't really impact consumption and production," said Uditha Liyanage, Head of Academic Affairs at the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), during a seminar last week on the new legal requirements applicable to the marketing of tobacco and alcohol. The purpose of the Act is to eliminate tobacco and alcohol related harm through the assessment and monitoring of the production, marketing and consumption of tobacco and alcohol products. It also attempts to discourage persons, primarily children, from smoking and consuming alcohol by restricting access.

According to attorney-at-law Dayanath Jayasuriya, former chairman of the Securities & Exchange Commission who gave an overview of the Act, an alcohol product defined as a beverage containing a volume of four and a half percent or more of alcohol has now been amended to one percent. Similarly, the "prohibition on sales" to persons under 21 years of age now includes the "promotion of sales."

Liyanage feels the Act is stringent only when it comes to marketing communications. He pointed out the legislation had originally banned smoking in all public places but a subsequent Supreme Court decision amended it to "designated places." Similarly, restrictions on the availability of tobacco and alcohol products "within a radius of one hundred meters of any premises frequented mainly by children and young adults," were removed. Deputy Solicitor General, Yasantha Kodagoda, touted the Act's prohibitions on the sale of tobacco products without a health warning, tobacco and alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotions, use of vending machines in the sale of these products and free sampling. However, Liyanage pointed out that the Act only refers to branded products. "The disconcerting fact is that the unregulated, illicit liquor market is much larger than the branded-products liquor market." He added that roughly two thirds of the liquor market will remain untouched by legislation and the Act.