Korean smokers will probably have to pay 4,500 won for a pack of 20 cigarettes from the beginning of 2015, or a little less if a political compromise takes place. A pack will cost roughly the same as a cappuccino or latte in a cafe. Smokers here can take consolation in the fact that they will still be spending less than their counterparts in most other OECD countries, but it’s going to be a heavy blow.

The Ministry for Health and Welfare expects a nearly 30 percent reduction in the number of cigarette smokers within the first few months of 2015. So, the chance of encountering secondhand smoke on the street will be 30 percent lower and hopefully 30 percent less cigarette butts will litter the sidewalks. On the other hand, the South Korean government will see an estimated 2.8 trillion won increase in tax revenue by the fiscal year 2015 as a result of the planned 80 percent cigarette price increase.

Around the time the plan to hike cigarette prices was announced, a court battle kicked off between the National Health Insurance Corporation and KT&G, the country’s major cigarette producer-distributor. The health insurance firm is demanding initial damages of 50 billion won (to be added to in follow-up suits) for the “proven” health hazards of cigarette smoking against the state cigarette maker’s claim that smoking may be just one of many causes of lung and cardiac diseases.

While similar legal contests took place in the United States (the U.S. vs. Philip Morris 1999-2006) and other countries, our government and many others have been collecting huge amounts of taxes from smokers. Taxes on cigarettes account for over 70 percent of their retail price, including a consumption tax, health promotion fund contribution, local tax and value-added tax.

Why do smokers have to pay all these taxes because of their habit? Is it punishment for defiling the environment, a reverse incentive to induce them to quit, or what? Smoking has fallen from being a decent individual and cultural indulgence to a public nuisance in just a few decades, and what is the justification for the financial penalties on top of hidden and open ostracism of smokers?

If trials were held purely based on humanitarian ideals, world governments would be indicted and punished as passive collaborators of the cigarette producers that are dispensing slow deaths to so many weak-minded smokers. Even after medical science exposed the direct relation between smoking and certain fatal diseases, governments stopped short of banning the substance, as they do for narcotics. Instead, they collected money from smokers and spent most of it on infrastructure, welfare and education programs, spending very little on “health promotion.”

The South Korean government took steps to dissociate itself from the tobacco business. The Office of Monopoly, which had exclusively handled the production and distribution of tobacco, ginseng and salt, changed from a government agency to a public corporation named the Korea Tobacco and Ginseng Corporation in the late 1980s. It was eventually privatized to become KT&G Corp.

“Cigarette smoking is the cause of lung cancer and various other diseases! Will you keep smoking? The smoke from cigarettes contains the carcinogens naphthylamine, nickel, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic and cadmium.” This warning message on cigarette packs is the ultimate disclaimer of government responsibility. But it is hardly shocking enough to force a smoker to throw a just-bought pack into a trash can.

Ghastly pictures of the effects of cigarette smoking on the human body will also appear on packs from the beginning of 2015 to demonstrate that the price hike is a genuine move to cut down cigarette smoking. But our officials surely need not bother to explain that it is a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone action as we all understand it pretty well. The thing is, the more the government emphasizes the harms of smoking, the weaker its justification becomes for collecting trillions of won more from smokers, and leaving them exposed to the deadly health risks.

Smokers are not the only ones forced to fatten the national treasury through so-called “sin taxes” levied on undesirable but unstoppable human activities. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, numerous men and women pack the grandstands at the horse racing parks south of Seoul (in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province), in Busan and on Jejudo Island to spend large amounts of time and money on betting. These days, the Korea Racing Authority earns more from indoor betting facilities it operates across the country than from the three racing parks.

Taxes collected from the horse, bicycle and motorboat racing facilities, as well as casinos and lotteries, make up a significant portion of central and local government revenues. And we are aware of the huge social costs of ruined personal finances, the breakup of homes and the personal destruction that results from addictions. The term “sin tax” suggests the contradiction and hypocrisy of governments bent on stuffing their coffers with money they collect in return for condoning and often promoting unwholesome human pastimes. The liquor tax is the king of the sin tax.

Media outlets these days quote figures in the trillions of won as the difference between original and revised government revenue schemes as the economy remains in an extended recession, while reporting huge increases in welfare expenditures needed to carry out political commitments made during election campaigns. With a protracted stalemate between the rival political forces over the past several months, the government is faced with a widening credibility gap and a loss of consensus on major issues.

Never in the history of the republic has the government as a whole ― the legislature, administration and judiciary ― been less trusted and held in lower esteem than it is now. Naturally, the public reacted with disapproval when lawmakers picked up a 3 million won “bonus” for the Chuseok holiday after doing practically nothing over the past year, with the last four months spent wrangling over a special bill to handle the aftermath of the Sewol sinking.

Fiscal pressure forced the administration to make a prompt decision on the cigarette price hike, but it could not come at a worse time. Frustrations these days run so deep and wide that people feel like lighting up regardless of the cost and the health risks. There have already been reports of increased soju consumption in recent months. 

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He can be reached at kmyongsik@hanmail.net. ― Ed.