PAKISTAN
The anti-tobacco campaigners have asked the government to place an independent and transparent track & trace system to stop under-reporting of real tobacco production.
The whopping figure of losses of PKR153 billion (US$2 billion) to national exchequer by the tobacco industry through various tactics has been estimated on the basis of a study done by the Social Policy and Development Center (SPDC). Malik Imran Ahmad from Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, Pakistan Office, said that after the introduction of the third tier, around 160 billion cigarettes were produced between May 2017 and March 2019. Tobacco companies share 75% of the total market, which means they were able to sell 120 billion cigarettes in the same period. Loss of revenue due to the introduction of the third tier (low tobacco taxes) is PKRs77.85 billion from 2016 to 2019. The loss of revenue due to price adjustments is PKR75 billion from 2018 to 2019.
Malik said that the track & trace system should be placed in a transparent manner. Without a transparent track & trace system, he said that the whole concept of gauging real production would be compromised.
Malik also said there should be a unified taxation regime for the tobacco industry and Pakistan should increase its taxes to align with regional economies. He said that the lower-tier cigarette packet stood at US$0.52 cents in Pakistan while its price in India was ranging US$1.5 per packet.