Smoking: Health ministry to propose ‘tobacco hazard tax’

Size of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs increased.

ISLAMABAD: The National Health Services Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) Ministry will forward a proposal to the top leadership of the country for imposition of a ‘tobacco hazard tax’.

If approved, the tax would be levied on cigarette manufacturers and be collected under the Prime Minister’s National Health Insurance Scheme, ministry sources told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, NHSRC Minister Saira Afzal Tarar announced at a press briefing that new, larger pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs would be introduced. The introduction of the new warning had been pending for the last four years.

Pakistan has increased the size of the warning from 40 to 85 per cent, similar to Thailand and India.

“With this, Pakistan has fulfilled its obligation under the Article 11 of the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control,” Tarar said.

Every year, over 100,000 people in Pakistan die due to various tobacco-related illnesses, and the number is on the rise.

Sharing details, Tarar said that the pictorial warning would cover 85 per cent of a pack on both sides with a warning in Urdu and another in English.

The old mouth cancer warning of will be replaced by a picture of throat cancer, she said.

“Under this new measure, cigarettes manufactured or imported for sale in the country will be required to use the new pictorial warning on their packs from March 30 this year,” Tarar said.

After March 30, they will be given a 60-day grace period to clear old stocks, and from May 31, they will be required to only sell packs bearing the new pictorial warning, she said.

Tarar warned that action would be taken against any manufacturer, importer, distributer or retailer found violating the new requirement.

Ministry sources told The Express Tribune that no survey had been conducted in the country to determine the effectiveness of the pictorial warnings.

“The federal health ministry is formulating a new PC-1 National Tobacco Control Programme, which will be sent to the finance ministry for budget approval. Under this programme, a survey is expected to be carried-out,” the sources said.

The officials further said that the PC-1 of the programme was chalked out in 2010, but the Finance Ministry rejected the proposal at the time.

Other health initiatives

Meanwhile, Tarar also said that the much-awaited and delayed National Health Policy would be finalised within the next two months.

Moreover, the drug policy will also be launched next week and would help regulate drug prices in the country, she said.

On polio, Tarar said, “over 1.7 million children were missed in 2013 and 2014, while this year, during the nationwide anti-polio drive, 200,000 children were missed. Most of them were in Bara Tehsil, where a military operation is underway, and the remaining in Gilgit-Baltistan, where many areas are inaccessible due to snowfall.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12^th, 2015.