By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Speakers at media session of Human Development Foundation (HDF) held here on Wednesday highlighted the negative impacts of tobacco use on national economy and healthcare.
Partners from civil society like PANAH, SPARC and media persons joined the session aimed to highlight the growing need for enforcement of Health Levy bill on cigarettes.
The HDF CEO, Azhar Saleem stated that tobacco use has a significant impact on the economic costs of a country, including the health care costs for treating tobacco related diseases and lost productivity of workforce. The annual economic cost of smoking in Pakistan is as high as Rs 143 billion.
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. He also added that countries like Philippines have implemented health tax on tobacco products which has resulted in a sustainable source of funding for the national health care programs.
Executive Director SPARC, Mr. Sajjad Cheema stated that it is imperative for us to save our youth and children from tobacco. The most effective measure in this regard is the higher prices of tobacco products. He said that with higher taxes and the proposed health levy, the prices of cigarettes will increase which will limit access and ultimately reduce the overall consumption by all, particularly youth.
Representative of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids (CTFK), As Mr. Malik Imran has been rightly emphasizing that taxation is a proven effective measure to control the growing consumption of tobacco. He repeatedly mentions that it has almost been a year that Health Levy bill was approved by the Cabinet yet it was not included in the Financial Bill 2019-2020 due to the hidden interests and misleading influence of Tobacco Industry. Sadly, the government is still dragging its feet to implement it.
Senior Economist at Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), Mr. Waseem Saleem said that the large fiscal imbalances in Pakistan require greater tax revenues. He added that the level of under-reporting of cigarette production in Pakistan has significant negative implications for government tax revenue.
Revenue loss due to undeclared production is estimated to be Rs 31 billion while by including GST revenue, it becomes Rs 37 billion (considering the average FED rate of Rs 1.93 per cigarette in 2016-17, calculated by dividing total revenue by the volume of sales). He stated that tobacco taxation will positively contribute to government revenues, ultimately promoting the government’s public health objectives.
