ISLAMABAD: In this budget, tobacco prices will not be increased. The proposal has been included in the Budget 2017-18. Federal government may face a strong resentment from doctors and other communities.
The reduction in tax on tobacco in the coming budget can reduce the revenue. It is pertinent to mention here that Haroon Akhtar Khan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue, has pleaded that high tax on cigarette leads to more smuggling which in turn costs billions to the exchequer.
If government is concerned at increasing revenue then it should instead pay attention to bring the big fish in the tax-net and do the looted money by politicians and establishment back to the country’s banks. According to FBR sources, it is also expected that government will focus on decreasing the prices of basic commodities like bread, fruit, milk, petrol, electricity and other necessities. It is important to mention here that Pakistan has one of the largest populations of tobacco users in the world, with over 22 million adults smoking cigarettes, Huqqa or Biri and millions more using smokeless tobacco products including Gutka, Naswar, and Paan.
One third (32.4%) of men and 5.7% of women smoke tobacco. Over 100,000 deaths are attributed to tobacco use each year from lung and oral cancers, strokes, heart and respiratory diseases. It is expected to increase the number of smokers, thereby increasing the disease and death burden caused by tobacco.
Research has shown that increase in tobacco prices leads to a decrease in number of smokers in a given community, one of the most effective of many strategies to curb tobacco use. Here, our government is going to do exactly the opposite: make it easier to buy cigarette. It may not matter for the richer strata of the society but for the poor and lower middle class, even a small price rise matters a lot. It is this group unfortunately that is furthermost away from any sort of health education, healthcare and economic benefits when it comes to illness that inevitably stems from tobacco use. A research study on tobacco taxation in Pakistan, conducted jointly by the FBR, World Bank, University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Chicago and Beacon House National University, concluded that a uniform specific excise tax of Rs. 31.2 per pack of 20 cigarettes could reduce overall cigarette consumption by 7.5 percent, increase tax revenues by Rs 27.2 billion, leading to over half a million users quitting and reducing premature deaths among current adult smokers by over 180,000 while also preventing 725,000 youth from taking up smoking.
