The excise tax on tobacco products will increase by 23 percent, the Indonesian Finance Ministry said on September 13.

Indonesia has raised tobacco taxes by 10-11 percent per year in the past five years. However, this measure has failed to significantly reduce smoking rates in the country.

Currently, the floor retail prices of popular machine-rolled clove cigarettes range from 715 rupiah (0.0512 USD) to 1,120 rupiah a stick. Meanwhile, floor retail prices of filtered cigarettes range from 640 rupiah to 1,130 rupiah a stick.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 70 percent of adult men smoke in Indonesia - one of the highest rates in the world.

Tobacco kills 225,720 people each year in the country or 14.7 percent of all deaths, mostly through cardiovascular diseases, the WHO said in a 2018 report./. VNA