PANAH Appeals To Impose Surcharge On Tobacco Items

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 31st May, 2020 ) :Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) has appealed the quarters concerned to impose surcharge on tobacco items and sugary drinks in coming budget.

In a statement on World No Tobacco Day, Secretary General PANAH Sanaullah Ghuman on Sunday said that sugar drinks and smoking cause growing diseases and cost the government in billions.

He said that PANAH has been working for the last 36 years to prevent heart disease among the people. In addition to co-administering CPR to save lives in the event of a heart attack, PANAH also helps poor and underprivileged people to have heart surgery and tries to prevent the causes of heart attacks.

He said that there are two major reasons which are not only the cause of heart disease but also the root cause of many other diseases, namely tobacco and sugary drinks.

According to British research, those who use too much sugar can die 16 years before their age and the average age of smokers is reduced by 10 years. These diseases are causing the 68% of total deaths rates in Pakistan while the cost of living for these diseases has become 51 per cent.

The producers of these products take their profits to other countries and leave only the diseases and their expenses in Pakistan.

In our society the use of these items is increasing day by day due to which the number of children is increasing which is endangering the future of the country and sadly children are not considering it harmful but they take it as fashion, he added.

He said that Pakistan is producing more than 200 million soft drinks, more than 241 million squash juice and 80 billion cigarettes.

It is the duty of the quarters concerned to control the use of unnecessary items that are not useful for living. Unfortunately these products have the lowest price in Pakistan as compared to other countries of the region, he added.

Sanaullah Ghuman said that much researches have shown that the best way to control consumption of any item, is to increase its price as according to the WHO, a 10% price increase reduces usage by up to 8%.

According to a recent WHO report, these companies spend around Rs 8 billion on propaganda and use the same old tactics every year. Even they avoid reporting their production and supply their own products to the market illegally, which is an evidence for illicit trade.

Now an independent study has also found that they present incorrect figures, he added.