The Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH), joined by civil society groups and public health experts, has called on the government to introduce a tobacco tax and higher levies on sugary drinks and other ultra-processed products rather than imposing deeper cuts to health and education budgets.<\/p>\n
Speaking on behalf of PANAH, General Secretary Sana Ullah Ghumman warned that sweeping reductions in development spending and recent fuel price hikes tied to rising global tensions risk long-term harm to human development and the economy. He said a tobacco tax and similar measures on harmful products offer a practical way to mobilise revenue while reducing the burden of preventable disease.<\/p>\n
Pakistan is confronting a serious non-communicable diseases crisis, with NCDs accounting for nearly 58% of deaths and more than 33 million adults living with diabetes. The country spends approximately USD 2.6 billion each year on diabetes care alone, a cost Ghumman noted is double the IMF instalment Pakistan receives. These illnesses also reduce workforce productivity through absenteeism and premature mortality, undermining economic output.<\/p>\n
PANAH and health experts emphasised that tobacco tax and sugary drinks tax policies are supported by international evidence: higher prices lower consumption, improve health outcomes and generate government revenue. They pointed out that current tax receipts from industry are only a fraction of the public cost of the diseases these products cause, and that focused health taxation can protect vulnerable households most affected by inflation and fuel price rises.<\/p>\n
The coalition urged the government to adopt progressive health taxation that targets non-essential, harmful products rather than shifting the fiscal burden onto ordinary citizens by cutting essential services. Implementing a robust tobacco tax alongside measures on ultra-processed products would help safeguard public health, strengthen fiscal resilience and preserve investments in education and healthcare for Pakistan\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
PANAH called for immediate action from policymakers to prioritise public health and economic stability by taxing harmful products and avoiding disproportionate cuts to development spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PANAH urges a tobacco tax and sugary drinks tax to raise revenue and protect health and education instead of cutting development budgets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":17844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}