LAHORE: Federal Minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Saira Afzal Tarar said the government was implementing tax and price policies on tobacco products as a way to reduce tobacco consumption.
Addressing a seminar held in connection with the World No Tobacco Day here, the minister said Tobacco Control Cell had formed a technical working group on tobacco taxation. Experts from Federal Board of Revenue, World Health Organization, World Bank and Tobacco Control Cell are members of its working group, she added.
She said for the federal budget 2016-17, the ministry had also sent recommendations to Ministry of Finance to increase taxes on tobacco products and earmark tobacco tax revenue for the Prime Minister’s Health Programme for Treatment of NCDS. The target was to increase tobacco taxation to the minimum level of 70% as recommended by World Health Organization.
She said the ministry had banned tobacco and tobacco products advertisements in print, electronic and outdoor media. This legislation was challenged in Sindh High Court by a renowned tobacco company, but it had to withdraw the petition due to the arguments of the ministry.
