ISLAMABAD: Data released by the Indian government regarding the reduction in tobacco use in the country has shown that Pakistan is far behind the neighbouring country in this regard.

India has reduced the use of tobacco among adults by 17pc since 2010 – this means there are eight million fewer tobacco users in India today than there were seven years ago, despite the growth of the Indian population.

The percentage of adults using tobacco in India fell from 34.6pc in 2009-2010 to 28.6pc in 2016-2017. The dramatic decline is highlighted in India’s second Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), and confirmed that India’s passage of public health legislation is working to reduce tobacco use.

Nadeem Iqbal, the CEO of The Network for Consumer Protection, told Dawn he expected would Pakistan would also show improvements, but a recent step by the Pakistani government to introduce a third tax tier for cigarettes has disappointed him.

“Now I can surely say that the consumption of cigarettes will increase because the tax on cigarettes has been reduced by 50pc. Resultantly, people will consume more cigarettes as in Pakistan around 80pc of poor people smoke,” he said.

The Ministry of National Health Services had suggested increasing taxes on cigarettes, with a minimum tax of Rs44 on a pack of 20. However, the 2017-2018 budget has proposed the introduction of a third tax tier, which would bring the minimum tax to Rs16 on a pack of 20 cigarettes.

According to the Indian government, the decline in tobacco consumption has been even greater among young people. The prevalence of tobacco use among Indians between the ages of 15 and 24 fell by 33pc – from 18.4pc to 12.4pc.

Tobacco use fell by 54pc among young people between the ages of 15 and 17.

Since 2010, India has taken a series of actions at the national and state level to curb the country’s enormous tobacco epidemic, which kills over 1m each year.

These include large, graphic warning labels that cover 85pc of tobacco products.

This week, the Indian government also announced that it would tax cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and bidis at 28pc, the highest tax rate, under a new goods and services tax structure.

Coalition for Tobacco Control National Coordinator Khurram Hashmi told Dawn Saudi Arabia just two days ago announced that it would double taxes on tobacco products.

“On the other hand, in Pakistan tax on cigarettes has been reduced by 50 percent. We were making efforts to ensure that the cigarettes would not be sold in loose packing so that youngsters would not buy them. However, because of the reduction in tax, now youngsters can buy the whole packet,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2017