Islamabad: The Pakistan government is considering increasing the price of cigarettes in the 2024-25 budget, sources said.
According to the details, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has started receiving proposals from stakeholders regarding the increase in the price of cigarettes.
Sources also revealed that civil society organizations submitted a proposal for a 26.6% increase in the federal excise duty (FED) on tobacco.
The Tobacco Control Cell has also finalized its proposal to make cigarettes more expensive, sources said.
The Health Ministry will finalize the proposal and send it to the Finance Ministry this week, sources said.
The 2025 budget calls for a possible increase in Fed anti-tobacco spending from 15% to 19%.
Currently, the Pakistani government charges FED 120 per pack of cigarettes, while locally produced cigarettes are sold at 90 rupees per pack.
Multinational cigarette manufacturers paid $173 billion in taxes last year, and local cigarette manufacturers avoided taxes of 240 billion rupees last year.
Pakistan faces a significant problem in the widespread use of tobacco products, with more than 31.9 million adults aged 15 years and above identified as current tobacco users, representing 19.7% of adults.
Tobacco-related diseases cause more than 160,000 deaths each year, which accounts for 1.6% of the country’s GDP each year. However, in the 2022-23 fiscal year, tobacco taxes will account for only 16% of this cost, down from 19.5% in 2019.
