Tobacco use affects economy, healthcare costs significantly

Islamabad : Tobacco use has a significant impact on the economic costs of a country, including the healthcare costs for treating tobacco related diseases and lost productivity of workforce.

This was stated by CEO Human Development Foundation (HDF) Azhar Saleem while talking at a media session organised by HDF. He shared that higher taxes on tobacco products create a win-win situation, in terms of increased revenues for government and improved public health as tobacco consumption reduces.

Quoting the example of Philippines, he shared that Philippines introduced ‘Sin Tax’ on cigarettes, leading to three folds increase in the budget for the department of health, which was directed at increasing the number of families from 5.2 million in 2012 to 15.3 million in 2015 whose health insurance was paid by national government.

He also added that many countries have implemented health tax on tobacco products, which has resulted in a sustainable source of funding for the national healthcare programmes.