TJSA urges Ramaphosa to lift tobacco ban, says harm outweighs intended positive outcomes. Covid_19
Johannesburg - Tax Justice SA has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to lift the ban on tobacco sales as the government's case crumbles, saying that at a time when South Africans should unite against the unprecedented coronavirus adversity,"they are being told that crime pays”.
In the letter, TJSA said the unintended consequences of this ban had caused harm that far outweighed whatever positive outcomes it hoped to achieve. It was threatening livelihoods, rewarding illegal enterprises, and eroding taxpayer morality. Key among these was the admission that smokers were “less likely to be infected” with the coronavirus and develop Covid-19. In more apparently inadvertent confusion, government argued that cigarette purchasing during lockdown had increased inter-personal contact – as compared with ordinary shoppers – without acknowledging its own ban on legal cigarette sales could be to blame, Abramjee said.
Even if it were true that smokers infected with Covid-19 were at risk of developing more severe forms the disease, government’s own figures proved that only 16 ICU beds would be freed up by the ban - out of a national total of 3500, Evans, a partner at Webber Wentzel, told CapeTalk radio.
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