Ministry recommends legislation to impose health tax on tobacco, drinks.

ISLAMABAD -- The Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination has urged the Ministry of Finance to lay Federal Health Levy Bill in the Parliament to impose a health tax on tobacco and sugary drinks to increase the revenue and prevent non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, in a letter to the Ministry of Finance and Revenue, has urged it to lay the Federal Health Levy Bill before the parliament at the earliest possible date.

He also emphasized upon the need to charge Rs10/pack of 20 cigarettes health tax on tobacco and Rs1/250ml on carbonated drinks as approved by the federal cabinet on June 18, 2019.

Dr Faisal Sultan said the NCDs, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease were collectively responsible for almost 68 per cent of all deaths in Pakistan. He said NCDs were causing 51 per cent of the total burden of diseases, predominantly in the young age group.

Pakistan is obligated to reduce one-third premature mortality from these diseases mainly caused by the tobacco by 2030 as part of its targets set in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he said.

He said the government could achieve the goal by decreasing the tobacco consumption among the youth through the imposition of the health tax.

The imposition of health tax on tobacco and sugary drinks as per the decision of the federal cabinet will prove as a catalyst to reduce the non-communicable diseases in the country, he said in the letter, adding that this would also help boost the tobacco revenues.

A recent study of the Tobacconomics, a collaboration of leading researchers who have been studying the economics of tobacco control policy for nearly 30 years, has revealed that Pakistan scored 0.88 points out of 5 on cigarette tax scorecard of 170 countries. This score is the lowest in the region.

In Pakistan, tobacco use is a cause of death of...

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