She said that the pilot study carried out to measure the burden of illicit trade in cigarettes in Islamabad would be helpful in strategizing tobacco control in Pakistan, especially while taking tobacco taxation measures for reducing demand of cigarettes.
Talking about the burden of tobacco use in the country, she said that tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of death in the world. Tobacco kills more than 160,000 people every year in Pakistan. In Pakistan, 23.9 million adult populations use tobacco in any form. She expressed satisfaction on the findings of the study which revealed that there are only 15.95 percent of the cigarettes per day consumed in Islamabad, classified as illicit.
She said that based on the overblown figures of illicit trade in cigarettes, the policy of reducing cigarette prices was introduced by FBR in the last government regime. Globally, tobacco industry lobbies for favourable tax structure arguing that an increase in taxes will harm the economy and increase illicit trade.
However, evidence from this report shows that the burden of illicit trade in cigarettes in Islamabad is almost half than quoted by tobacco industry. The report also counters the tobacco industry arguments about shifting of smokers towards cheaper brands if prices increased, by revealing that 61% of the smokers would quit or reduce smoking if price is increased. Only 8 percent of the smokers would opt for cheaper cigarettes if price is increased.
Earlier, Dr Ziauddin Islam briefed about the rational and intended benefits of the study in strategising tobacco taxation policy reforms in Pakistan. Muhammad Faisal, Project Manager FFO gave a detailed presentation on the study. He informed the participants about the finding of the study, i.e, 15.95 percent of the cigarettes per day consumed in Islamabad, classified as illicit.
These cigarette brands failed to comply with the six-factor criteria, i.e, pictorial health warnings, textual health warning, low price, age warning, manufacturer details and printing of retail price. Out of 15.95%, only 10.74% of cigarettes were illicit as smuggled and 5.2% cigarettes were illicit as low priced or non-duty paid (NDP).