Single-tier taxation on tobacco only solution to raise revenue, reduce health burden

ISLAMABAD: Anti-tobacco activists and experts on Saturday said that enforcement of single-tier taxation system on tobacco products was only solution for the government to raise revenue and bring down expenditure on tobacco-related diseases.
They urged the government to ensure single-tier taxation for the tobacco products in the upcoming budget, adding that different taxation tiers on tobacco products were only benefitting multinational tobacco companies to evade taxes and contributing to increase in number of smokers in the country.
A Country Representative of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Malik Imran said that Pakistan has not increased tax on tobacco products for the last four years while prices of all other commodities have increased manifold due to inflation.
He said the government should enforce a single-tier taxation system through the budget to save youth and kids from becoming smokers. He questioned the multinational tobacco companies’ resistance to the single-tier taxation system, saying the consumers would pay the higher taxes and the companies should back it.
A recent research study by The University of Edinburgh has also urged Pakistani government to reform tobacco taxation policy, since taxes can raise revenue, are a proven strategy to avoid tobacco-related mortality and morbidity, particularly in the context of Covid-19.
The cigarettes in Pakistan became more affordable in 2020-21 from a combination of no change in the federal excise tax and increases in nominal income and inflation. Pakistan is ranked among the worst-performing countries in the Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Scorecard with a score of less than one on a five-point scale.
The document said that more than 400,000 people are estimated to start smoking in 2020-21.
The anti-tobacco activists said the tobacco use in Pakistan was deadly as around 30 million adults (age 15 +) or about 19.1 percent of adults currently use tobacco.
The tobacco use is the leading cause of deaths due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.
In 2017, tobacco use killed an estimated 163,360 people. The poor households spend more of their budget on tobacco as compared to rich households in Pakistan, which leads to reduced spending on basic needs, they added.