Call To Raise Excise Duty On Cigarette Packs For Protecting Public Health

Muhammad Rameez Published April 26, 2017 | 08:00 PM

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Apr, 2017 ) : Various civil society organizations Wednesday called for enhancing excise duty on cigarette packs in the budget 2017-18 to protect public health.

The excise duty be raised by 75 per cent on cigarette packs falling under the lower slab from the current level of Rs 33 to Rs 44 in the upcoming budget, the organizations said in a press release here.

They said that duties on cigarette packs were divided into two slabs or categories, determined by their price. Packs which cost Rs 88 or less fall under the `lower slab', while those which cost more than Rs 88 fall under the `higher slab'.

They said that 80 per cent of all the cigarette brands fell under the lower slab. By increasing tax on those brands would render them out of reach for lower income groups, especially under-aged smokers.

They said they had made similar recommendations last year as well when the duty was enhanced from Rs 28.40 to Rs 32.98. The duty on higher slabs currently stood at Rs 74.10, which should also be increased according to the inflation rate.

They claimed that the a proposal had also been made by multinational tobacco companies for introduction of a third slab. "This new slab is expected to only increase the sales volume of the multinational tobacco companies as it will increase cigarette consumption many folds among the youth." Such proposal be rejected immediately, they said.

It may be mentioned that Pakistan signed a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in 2004. Under Article 6 of the FCTC, each country has to implement a tax and introduce price policies on tobacco products as part of measures to reduce tobacco consumption.

According to a joint study conducted, a uniform specific excise tax of Rs 44 per pack of 20 cigarettes could reduce the number of smokers in the country by 13.2 per cent, increase tax revenues by Rs 39.5 billion, leading to a reduction of 0.65 million premature deaths which are caused by smoking every year. It can prevent 2.55 million youths from smoking, they added.