Taxing health-harming products and creating health promotion funds: A win-win health strategy for governments: Panel Discussion
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Room: Auditorium I
Moderators:Yussuf Saloojee (South Africa), José Luis Castro (France)
Speakers: Kaul Singh Thakur (India), Jeremias Paul (Philippines), Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of VINACOSH (Vietnam)
Kaul Singh Thakur (India) is Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Law and Revenue, Government of Himachal Pradesh, India.
Mr Kaul Singh Thakur is Health, Revenue and Law Minister for the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. He holds BA and LLB degrees from Punjab University and began his political career more than 40 years ago. In 1977 he was elected to the State Legislative Assembly and has been re-elected eight times. During his distinguished career, he has served in posts focusing state planning, health and family welfare, parliamentary affairs and law, irrigation and public health, law and justice and urban development. He became the Cabinet Minister with portfolios of Health and Family Welfare, Revenue and Law in December 2012.
Jeremias Paul (Philippines) is Undersecretary, Department of Finance, Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
Jeremias N Paul Jr has held various positions in the Department of Finance since 1990, including Assistant Secretary of the International Finance Group and Undersecretary of the Corporate Affairs Group. In 2005-2006, he served as Alternate Executive Director of the World Bank Group in Washington D.C. and spearheaded governance reforms in G-24 when the Philippines was Chair. Currently he heads the Domestic Finance Group, leading the government initiatives to reform fiscal and tax systems, including the “Sin Tax Reform” law, which restructured the Philippine excise tax system for alcohol and tobacco products. He is also an internationally recognized expert in corporate governance and energy and water sector reforms.
Anne Jones OAM (Australia) has been a tobacco control advocate for 20 years, including as a technical advisor for The Union since 2007.
Based in Australia and Asia Pacific region, Anne Jones received the Order of Australia for her work as CEO of ASH Australia in contributing to one of the lowest tobacco use rates in the world. Since 2007 Anne has worked for The Union in China, managing the first Bloomberg Initiative grants for smokefree cities in the lead up to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. She has also worked in the Philippines and currently works in Vietnam on sustainable funding for tobacco control. She has been a major contributor to several Union publications and training programmes on smokefree laws, protecting health policies from tobacco industry interference, sustainable funding mechanisms and other issues.