ISLAMABAD: While criticising the government for lowering the cigarette prices in the budget, tobacco control advocates on Tuesday said that it would increase the use of cigarettes.
On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, the civil society held a protest in front of the National Press Club, demanding that the government withdraw the proposal of the introduction of third tier in tobacco taxation. “It will allow the international tobacco industry to introduce cheaper cigarettes to be easily accessible to children,” they said.
In the proposed budget, the Finance Ministry has reduced FED on a pack of 20 cigarettes from Rs 32.98 to Rs 16 by introducing a third tier. There is almost no change in the Federal Excise Duty (FED) on the upper slab.
Nadeem Iqbal, The Network for Consumer Protection CEO, said that the government’s decision had taken all of us five years back. “As in the proposed finance bill, Pakistan has revised its tobacco excise tax system in 2017-18, again moving from two-tiered to three-tiered system. Previously, it was modified in 2013, moving from three-tiered, mixed, ad valorem plus specific taxes, to a two tiered specific tax for cigarettes,” he said.
“Something is going terribly wrong with three federal ministries- Finance, Commerce and Health. The first two are in support of tobacco industry. The Health Ministry, whose in charge is the PM himself, recommended a raise in tobacco taxes. A recommendation was totally ignored by the Finance Ministry and the Federal Board of Revenue,” he said.
“In its recommendation sent to the Finance Ministry two weeks ago, the state minister for National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC), Saira Afzal had asked for an increase in the FED on lower slab of all brands of cigarettes from the current Rs 32.98 to Rs 44 per pack of 20 cigarettes. This did not happen,” he said.
“However, this is not the only failure of the NHSRC,” said Khurram Hashmi, the Coalition for Tobacco Control Pakistan (CTC-Pak) national coordinator.
“The people of Pakistan are still waiting for the government to fulfill its commitment to implement 85 percent enhanced Graphical Health Warning (GHW) on cigarette packs,” he said.
“More than 555,000 children continue to use tobacco each day. Youth is the future of our nation. It means that our future is at risk,” he said.
The civil society activists at the picket were critical of government’s retrogressive measure to endanger the lives of the people, saying that it would damage Pakistan’s efforts to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets especially SDGs goal 3-A. Pakistan is signatory to the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). “Price and tax measures should be taken to reduce the demand for tobacco by raising FED to at least 75%,” the protesters said.