ISLAMABAD: Most politicians who were requested to play their role in discouraging the use of tobacco, especially by the younger generation, looked at the matter from the point of view of the tobacco industry, said the chief executive of the think tank, The Network for Consumer Protection, Nadeem Iqbal on Tuesday.

Mr Iqbal was speaking at a ‘Pre-Budget Consultation Regarding Tobacco Taxation’, said him and representatives of other organisations had decided to contact parliamentarians to help loosen the hold of the powerful tobacco industry.

“During their meetings with us, a number of parliamentarians asked us the same questions fed to them by the tobacco industry at different forums. However, some parliamentarians, including senators Saleem Mandviwala and Mushahid Hussein Syed agreed that the consumption of cigarettes should be reduced,” he said and that both senators had promised to support legislation against the use of tobacco.

“The argument put forward by the tobacco industry is that cigarettes are legal and that people have a choice if they want to use them. We say the industry targets children, that cigarettes contain nicotine which is addictive and which makes it difficult to stop smoking, especially for children,’ he said.

Civil society representatives suggest taxes on cigarettes be increased, say tobacco industry distorts statistics

Mr Iqbal added that the request sent by the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) for increasing Federal Excise Duty (FED) is not sufficient and that there is no guarantee that the request will be implemented.

The NHS ministry sent a suggestion to the finance minister, saying the FED should be increased on cigarettes from Rs32.98 to Rs44 per pack of 20 cigarettes which will drive revenue up by Rs39.5 billion and will help avoid 0.65 million deaths caused by smoking.

“We need the next generation to be healthy but the tobacco industry has been trying to create a third tier of taxation for tobacco. There are currently two tiers for taxation for tobacco but we are suggesting there should only be one tier to ensure cigarette consumption is reduced,” he said.

“The tobacco industry hires former bureaucrats and retired officers of the armed forces which makes it difficult for decision makers to increase cigarette prices. There is also no official data on the tobacco industry which provides this data itself and manipulates it in its own favour,” he added.

To make his point, Mr Iqbal said it is claimed that cigarettes are smuggled from Iran and Afghanistan and that counterfeit cigarettes are made in this country when only 2pc of the cigarettes sold in the country are illegal.

“A company involved in illicit cigarette trade was raided in Buner which revealed that a licensed tobacco company had sold it the machinery for manufacturing cigarettes when according to the rules, companies cannot sell machines without first informing the Federal Bureau of Revenue,” he said.

Head of Coalition for Tobacco Control Khurram Hashmi also said the tobacco industry plays with statistics and forces the government to reduce prices.

“The tobacco industry claims it has been facing a loss of 40pc when the fact is the industry has made Rs28 billion till now. The tobacco industry does most of its business near the announcement of the budget and holds product in large numbers because of the possibility of increase in prices,” he said.

Mr Hashmi suggested arrangements should be made for conducting an audit of the tobacco industry and taxes should be increased.

“The health of the people of Pakistan is being compromised and almost 108,000 people die due to tobacco related diseases,’ he said and suggested the pictorial warnings on cigarette packets should be enhanced as well.

However, he said, some improvements have been made across the city such as people do not smoke in public places including restaurants and on public transport.

“There is a need to raise awareness about the issue so that wives and children will stop their husbands and parents from smoking in the house and ask them to quit,” he said.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2017