Proposal to increase fines for smoking in public places

Mr. Ly Ngoc Kinh, senior expert of the Office of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Program (Ministry of Health), said that the current fine of 50,000 to 100,000 VND/time for people smoking in public places is not enough of a deterrent and has not been implemented by localities and units.

In fact, in nearly a year and a half of implementing this regulation, only Lao Cai province reported fining 10 people. In the draft Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco Harms, which will be submitted to the Government and the National Assembly session in early 2012, it is proposed to increase the fine to 1 million to 10 million VND/time for owners of establishments that smoke in public places and to increase the fine for individual smokers to 200,000 VND/time.

Individuals who smoke can be fined 200,000 VND/time.

According to the Tobacco Harm Prevention Program, the rate of students under 10 years old who try smoking is also very high (17.6% for boys and 5.5% for girls). Notably, the topic "Global survey on smoking among medical students, research in Vietnam" presented on the website of the Tobacco Harm Prevention Program Office shows that the rate of male medical students who smoke is 57.1%.

According to Hanoi Moi