Ex-smoker shows saving S$5,100 possible by not smoking a pack a day in S’pore

Over 13 months.

Matthias Ang | September 05, 2018, 02:42 PM

The greatest harm about smoking in Singapore is that it is super expensive.

As of February 2018, according to The Straits Times, the tobacco tax on cigarettes stands at roughly 60 percent for a pack of 20 cigarettes, excluding goods and services tax (GST).

Video put up by non-smoker shows how much money can be saved

This likely explains the rationale in the following video put up by Facebook user Loo Fook Weng Albert on Aug. 31.

In the caption for his video, Loo states:

"This is how much you can save if quit smoking for one year based on a packet of cigarette per day...(btw I am non-smoker)

Update: my saving method is one to few hundred in a few days, based on average $15/day..hope this will clarify

Here’s the math: Due to the 60 percent tax, a packet of 20 Marlboro White cigarettes cost S$14.10, while a packet of Sampoerna A Menthol cigarettes cost S$13.80.

Money saved over a period of 13 months

Most of the one-and-a-half minute video consists of Loo opening the tin money box like a can of Campbell Soup.

At the 17-second mark, Loo mentioned in Mandarin that inside the can is money saved over "13 months".

The can is eventually opened at the one-minute mark to reveal dozens of 50 dollar notes, with twos, fives, tens, and hundred dollar notes mixed in as well.

Loo then emptied out the money onto the table, speaking in Mandarin about how "it's a lot of money", with an excited young's girl voice -- presumably his daughter -- talking in the background.

So how much is that saved in total?

Taking from Loo's video caption the figure of S$15 saved per day, for a period of 13 months, this would add up to more than S$5,100 saved in total.

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Not everyone is convinced

Needless to say, a number of people reacted with plenty of sarcastic scepticism towards the video.

Source: Screenshots from Facebook

Some also took issue with the fact that he was a non-smoker supposedly attempting to lecture smokers.

Source: Screenshot from Facebook

Although at one point, in response to a comment about the difficulty in giving up smoking, Loo revealed that he was formerly a smoker too who had quit 14 years ago.

Source: Screenshot from Facebook

Top images from Loo Fook Weng Albert's Facebook and Marlboro cigarettes Facebook