Call for imposing hefty taxation on tobacco products to curb fatal diseases

ISLAMABAD. Health professionals while stressing the need for imposing hefty taxation on tobacco and tobacco products have said that the use of tobacco products is a major cause of various fatal diseases which annually resulted in more than 163,360 deaths in Pakistan.

They proposed that the government should increase the tax on tobacco products by at least 30 percent to discourage its use, sharing a fact sheet on the health and economic harm of tobacco use and claimed 31 million adults over the age of 15 use tobacco in the country.

Speaking at the event organised by Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH), titled, "Media session on heated tobacco products are more harmful than other tobacco products" they sought an increase in taxation and banning all kinds of advertisement of tobacco products.

They further urged the government to withdraw the legal status of heated tobacco products.

They demanded the government not to give licence to the tobacco industry “to kill Pakistanis”.

Speaking on the occasion, Member National Assembly (MNA) Dr Samina Matloob urged the government “Please, don’t give licence to tobacco industry to kill Pakistanis.” She said that 66.5 percent of deaths caused by tobacco were caused by tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer, 53.2 percent of deaths were due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 21.9 percent due to ischemic heart disease and 15.2 percent due to diabetes mellitus. Giving concession to heated tobacco would be tantamount to facilitating the destruction of public health, the government should withdraw this decision. Tobacco use costs the national exchequer billions of rupees annually.

Sanaullah Ghumman said that PANAH had been working to save its people for the last 40 years and the tobacco industry was always using new tactics to kill people. Currently, the largest segment of the tobacco products market is cigarettes with a volume of 1.53 billion dollars. He said that 19.1 percent of adults over 15 years of age currently use tobacco.

He said “about 40 percent of youth who have ever smoked tried cigarettes before age 10. Smoking kills up to half of all lifetime users, so the government has approved the legalization of a new type of tobacco, heated tobacco. This is an unhealthy decision.” He said heated tobacco was also harmful to health in the same way that cigarettes or any intoxicant could be fatal.

Country lead, Vital Strategies Dr Ziauddin Islam said the tobacco industry was polluting the country with the online sale and advertisement of emerging products, which showed that there was need to ban their online sale and advertisement of emerging tobacco products in Pakistan.

“Around 31 million Pakistanis consume tobacco and introducing new products will further increase this number. Social media is also being used to increase the number of tobacco users as an online platform is open for the tobacco industry to promote sale and advertisement of harmful emerging products,” he said.

Dr Ziauddin said that tobacco killed more than 163,600 people in Pakistan every year. “About 31,000 of these deaths are caused by second hand smoke. Tobacco accounts for about 16.0 percent of all male deaths and 4.9 percent of all female deaths.” He said that overall, 10.9 percent of all deaths were due to tobacco, while tobacco industry was misleading the government and the public.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022