Tobacco consumption is levying a burden of Rs 615 billion per annum on the national exchequer in terms of economic and health costs as the smoking-attributable direct cost is 8.3 percent of the total country’s health expenditure.
Anti-smoking experts said this in a virtual launch of “Tobacco Tax Reforms Model in Light of Health Cost Burden” by the Society for Protection of Rights of the Child (SPARC) here on Wednesday.
They said tobacco annihilates 1.6 percent of GDP every year, taking out Rs 615 billion from the economy as a health cost.
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Addressing the participants, Malik Imran Ahmad, Country Head Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), stated that the smoking-attributable direct cost is 8.3 percent of the total health expenditures, which amounts to 1.6 percent of Pakistan’s GDP.
In comparison, the total tax contribution of the tobacco industry (120 billion in 2019) is only around 20 percent of the total cost of smoking.
