PESHAWAR: The Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Agriculture (KPCA) has welcomed the decision of the federal government to introduce a new tier to document and curb the menace of illicit trade of substandard low-priced cigarettes.

Senior Vice President of KPCA Fazal-e-Elahi appreciated that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar emphasised in the recent budget speech that sales of illegal cigarettes sho­uld be checked as it resulted in loss of revenue for the government and also posed a serious health risk due to lack of quality controls.

“The introduction of a new tier should reduce the demand for substandard and smuggled illegal cigarettes. As a result, we are expecting the demand for tobacco leaf from all tobacco companies to increase, which will improve the livelihoods of farmers, workers and their dependents,” said Mr Elahi.

The illicit market of cigarettes in Pakistan accounts for about 40 per cent of total demand, putting the tobacco industry under pressure and costing 45pc loss in terms of the Federal Excise Duty. The country suffers an annual loss of more than Rs24 billion because of illegal tobacco trade.

The declining demand for tobacco leaf has put the livelihoods of 75,000 farmers, 300,000 farm workers and 450,000 farm family dependents at risk.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2017