Opportunity for new govt. to tame budget deficit by hiking tobacco taxes: experts.

ISLAMABAD -- The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) here on Friday organized a session with journalists to discuss the opportunity for the new government to generate revenue by increasing tobacco taxes.

Public Health experts recommended the new government to increase Federal Excise Duty (FED) on Tobacco Products by 30 percent to generate additional revenue that can be used for the well being of the people since the budget is a crucial challenge for the government.

Mr. Khalil Ahmed Dogar, Program Manager SPARC told the media that Tobacco taxes were the most cost-effective tobacco control measure and the use of tobacco caused an annual economic burden of 615 billion which is 1.6 percent of Pakistan's GDP.

This leads to significant negative externalities, including high healthcare costs and lost productivity due to tobacco-attributable diseases. But contrary, the revenue generated from the tobacco industry is 120 billion in 2019 which is approximately just 20 percent of the total cost of smoking, he expressed.

He stressed that the health and economic costs of tobacco use were more than five times the tax receipts, even though the tobacco industry was a major taxpayer in absolute terms, the tax contribution of the tobacco industry was a small fraction of what tobacco consumption costs the government and society. Since taxes on tobacco didn't interest the previous govt, it's an opportunity for the sitting govt. to generate revenue by increasing taxes on tobacco and tame the deficit, he added.

Speaking to the participants, Dr Ziauddin Islam, former technical head Tobacco Control Cell (TCC), Ministry...