Smoking kills over 210,000 every year in Pakistan

Islamabad:A network of academic researchers, public health and development professionals, Capital Calling, states that reports have shown that at least 35 million adults walk into death trap of smoking and one-fifth of these are unable to quit this habit.

Smoking is a leading cause of death the world over, adding that it backs the government’s decision to enforce taxes on tobacco. It states that the recent taxes enforced on smoking are actually too little too late. It adds that taxes put on cigarettes amount to much less than Rs615 billion, which was the amount the country had to bear in 2019 on smoking related diseases and deaths. India, for example, has a similar number of smokers in Pakistan but collects six times revenue to that of Pakistan. Pakistan remains one of the countries with the lowest tax rates on cigarettes.

The network says that Federal Excise Duty (FED) generates up to 80 per cent of the revenue from domestically-produced cigarettes in the country.Dr Hassan Shehzad, from IIU, says that for rich families, cigarettes are only a health hazard but for the poor it is an economic challenge as well as health, because the amount spent on tobacco can be used to buy food items. This directly leads to malnutrition for families living below the poverty line.

Expressing dissatisfaction on this state of affairs, he states that Pakistan is one of the worst-performing countries in the Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Scorecard that evaluates the strength of tax systems despite the recent tax increase. Currently the FED on the lower tier is $0.36 which is the lowest in the world. The tax on premium cigarettes is $1.17, which again is the lowest in the world.

On a broader canvass, Capital Calling states that tobacco kills almost half of its regular consumers. Quitting smoking can save lives of up to 70 per cent of smokers. According to estimates, imposing Federal Excise Duty (FED) has made cigarettes harder to access and it could ultimately save 360,000 lives across Pakistan.

It is now near impossible for youth to buy costly cigarettes. Older estimates show that 1,500 children took to smoking on a daily basis in the country. After the increase in cigarette price, this number is expected to come down drastically. After the increase in FED, prices of cigarettes have gone up by 154 per cent.