The Kingdom's proposal to double customs duty on tobacco products is to come up for discussion at the 45th meeting of the Customs Union Committee of the GCC here on Sunday. Saeed Bin Khalifa Al-Meri, Deputy Director General of the Commission for Customs Union in the UAE, said the Emirate state in principle doesn't object to the rise of the tobacco customs tariff 200 percent. “But it seeks to gradually increase the duty in phases,” he said. Gulf sources expect the committee members to resolve the issue in the meeting as it stems from their determination to curb smoking in GCC member states, Al-Riyadh said. They said the committee members would discuss the Saudi proposal and submit its recommendation to the Financial and Economic Committee to take a final decision. “The GCC unanimously agrees on the importance of turning the member states into smoking free countries because of the irreparable damage it causes to health and respective economies of the Gulf countries” sources added. __