ISLAMABAD: The government expects to receive around Rs 200 billion in taxes this year from the recent tax hike on the cigarette industry.
In the last financial year, a record tax of Rs 148 billion was collected from the tobacco industry. Every year, 337, 500 deaths are caused by smoking in Pakistan.
Read more: Business community fears ‘IMF-dictated’ budget will worsen economic situation
The report found that out of 31 million adult tobacco users in Pakistan, one out of every 94 smokers is forced to quit due to rising cigarette prices coupled with high taxes, and the savings are spent on food, education, and spending to meet other needs like paying for utilities.
The research study was titled “Tobacco but high taxes help reduce cigarette sales in Pakistan”. Ground surveys in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Peshawar claimed that smokers were forced to quit after a significant increase in federal excise duty from 146 percent to 154 percent in February this year.
