LAHORE: Communication expert Aniq Zafar has lauded the Federal Board of Revenue’s initiative to introduce tax stamps on cigarette packs.
“This move is likely to tighten the noose around the unabated untaxed cigarette trade, additionally, it will also help increase revenues of the government by promoting a legitimate tobacco sector,” he said.
Zafar expressed these views during an interactive workshop on the existing scenario in tobacco trade in Pakistan.
However, hiring a foreign firm to print tax stamps on cigarette packs and ignoring the local printing houses, which are able to undertake the task, will prove detrimental to the national economy.
“The government should not allow the money spent on tax stamps to be handed over to some foreign company. In the presence of Security Printing Press, Printing Corporation of Pakistan and a host of other big printing houses, there should not be any need to rely on a foreign company,” he remarked.
Additionally, Zafar pointed out, the price difference between legal and tax-evaded cigarettes was a major challenge the government was facing that undermined its public health objectives one of which was to curtail cigarette consumption across Pakistan.
“The formulation of effective policies and practical steps at the government level coupled with social awareness and coordination among stakeholders is essential to curb a mushroom growth in illicit cigarette trade in the country.”
Nielsen Pakistan Senior Manager Jawwad Riaz said one in every four cigarettes in the country was illegal. “In Pakistan, nearly 19.5 billion illegal cigarettes were consumed in 2014, of which 17.3 billion or 89% were local non-duty paid. More than two billion cigarettes are smuggled into the country and added to the illicit trade each year.”
