Zubair Qureshi
Islamabad
The federal government should take strict measures to curtail immense influence of the tobacco lobby over all the legislative bodies and avoid giving tax benefits to multinational companies.
This is highlighted in a research study titled Regional Tobacco Tax Regime and Its Implications for Health that was conducted and released by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).
The study said the laws against tobacco products including cigarettes, should be implemented in letter and spirit as well as without any discrimination. Apart from this, the statistically false claim of tobacco companies regarding the illicit trade of cigarettes should be rejected and no favours should be offered to them in taxation, it said.
The ruling elite should also keep distance from the tobacco industry, the study suggested, adding that it is very important because the industry would use it as a vehicle of their influence and interest.
It said that in such circumstances, the tobacco lobby becomes powerful enough to demand tax relaxations in the name of illicit trade.
The authorities suspect figures fudging to evade tax, it said, adding that while the consumption figures stand at a whopping 86.6 billion cigarettes per year, the official figures by the industry remain restricted to 55 billion only.
The rest is usually blamed on illicit trade, but the volume of illegal trade is not more than 9 percent which is way less than the tall figure of 41 percent being reported by companies, it said.
