Islamabad-The Ministry of National Health Services and Regulations (NHS), before the start of upcoming fiscal year, has recommended the finance ministry to increase Federal Excise Duty (FED) on lower slab cigarette brands, an official said on Wednesday.

The Minister NHS Saira Afzal Tarar had written separate letters to ministry of finance and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Revenue.

As per letter available with The Nation, the ministry suggested to implement tax and price policies on tobacco products referring to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

“The measure has been taken to reduce the tobacco consumption in the country,” said the spokesperson NHS Sajid Shah.

According to the letter, increase of Rs44 per pack on 20 lower slab brands has been suggested for the budget 2017-18.

The minister also requested to earmark 2 per cent of tobacco tax revenues for Prime Minister’s National Health Program for Treatment of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)/tobacco control.

“Tobacco taxes that translate into price increases are considered the single most effective option for reducing tobacco use and increasing revenues. Higher tobacco taxes save money by reducing tobacco related health care costs,” a letter stated.

The recommendations regarding increase of taxes on tobacco products were finalised by a technical working group constituted by the ministry.

The board was comprised of experts from Federal Board of Revenue, The Bloomberg Partners, World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank and Tobacco Control Cell.

As per recommendations in letter, lower slab of all brands of cigarettes should have minimum specific tax of Rs44 per pack of 20 cigarettes with annual adjustment to tobacco tax rates introduced to minimise the impact of inflation and per capita income growth.

It has been recommended that all exemptions of tobacco taxes provided at S NO 4 of the Schedule 3 of Federal Excise Act (i.e. nay, President of Pakistan, the President of Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Governors of the Provinces, members of their families and guests) should be removed.

The board also recommended that Electronic Monitoring System to monitor production of cigarettes (tacking & tracing system) should be implemented on priority basis.

According to a research study on tobacco taxation in Pakistan conducted by the FBR, World Bank, University of Toronto, Johns Hopkins University, University of Illinois at Chicago and other institutes, a uniform specific excise tax that accounted for Rs44 per pack of 20 cigarettes could reduce the number of smokers by 13.2 per cent.

Moreover, the study also showed that if the tax is increased to Rs44 per pack, the revenue will go up by Rs39.5 billion, avoiding 0.65 million premature deaths caused by smoking among current smokers.

In Pakistan, tobacco is a cause of death of around 108,800 persons every year. This is 298 deaths per day.

To save lives of people of Pakistan, there is dire need to take immediate tobacco control measures. One of the measures to reduce demand of tobacco products is increasing taxes on tobacco products.

This measure will be critical to reducing consumption of tobacco products and save lives of people of Pakistan.