Pakistanis Smoked away Rs250 Billion in the Form of Cigarettes Last Year

Source from:  The International News  10/30/2014

In response to the State Bank's recently launched Statistical Bulletin Report revealing the shocking figures that more than 64 billion cigarettes were consumed by Pakistanis during the Fiscal Year (FY) 2014, civil society and rights groups have expressed dismay over the government's poor performance with regard to controlling tobacco spread in the country.
 
According to the report, Pakistanis smoked away Rs250 billion in the form of cigarettes during the period.
 
Terming the SBP report an eye-opener for the authorities, the executive coordinator of TheNetwork for Consumer Protection (TN) Nadeem Iqbal called upon the government to wake up and implement tobacco-control laws in letter and spirit. The report speaks volumes about the inefficiency of the government in curbing the menace of tobacco, he said.
 
The situation is much more alarming, given the fact the SBP report is based only on official sales/record and relates with smoking alone, and there is no mention of smokeless tobacco including 'gutka,' 'naswar' and 'paan,' he said.
 
The government, Nadeem said, seems addicted to tobacco revenue (annual revenue) regardless of the fact that it translates into a huge disease burden. After the SBP report, the government should come clear on how much it earns in terms of tobacco revenue and how much people spend on smoking, said Nadeem.
 
Quoting the statistics of the report of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, Nadeem said cigarette consumption during the last two decades has registered a steady upward trend and between 1997 and 2008, aggregate cigarette consumption rose by nearly 55 per cent. In 2008 alone, some 76 billion cigarettes were consumed, he shared the Union's statistics. In the same period, the per capita cigarette consumption rose by nearly 23 per cent which is almost one-third of the population.
 
According to the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS), 46 per cent men and 5.7 per cent women smoke tobacco, and 15.9 per cent adult Pakistanis are daily smokers. Over 100,000 deaths are attributed to tobacco use each year in Pakistan, with the majority of these deaths resulting from lung and other cancers, strokes, ischemic heart and other cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. At a time, when statistics are revealing such shocking facts, is it logical on part of the government to let tobacco revenue activity go on without any check?
 
Referring to the Conference of Parties (COP6) held in Moscow on October 13-18, 2014, Nadeem said it is good that Pakistan had a representation there; however, it is hoped that the government would have much more push for tobacco control.
 
Quoting the May 2014 report of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Nadeem said if the government calls for adopting a uniform specific excise tax of Rs31.2 per pack which would lead over half a million current Pakistani cigarette smokers to quit smoking and prevent almost 725,000 Pakistani youth from taking it up. "We are far from introducing a uniform specific tax accounting for 70 per cent of Pakistan's average cigarette price. It could lead to half a million smokers quitting, and reduce premature deaths among adult smokers by over 180,000," he added.
 
Nadeem said that the minister for National Health Services Regulation & Coordination (NHSRC) Sara Afzal Tarar had made loud claims on the eve of the World No-Tobacco Day, giving a commitment for tobacco control but those claims are yet to be translated into reality. In 2010, Pakistan required to enforce new tobacco (pictorial) warnings covering 40 per cent of the cigarette packet. Similarly, the result of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) are still awaited.
 
The government has to pro-actively implement MPOWER (Monitoring, Protect, Offer, Warn, Enforce and Raise) by conducting surveys, enforcing ban on second-hand smoking in indoor public places, establishing cessation clinics in all public health facilities, increasing size of pictorial warning besides rotating it, enforcing comprehensive ban on TAPS and raising taxes. However, not much has been done in this regard as well. Enditem