The Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH) has urged the government to reject any tax relief for processed juices and to strengthen health taxes as part of the Finance Bill 2026\u201327. PANAH warned that parts of the beverage industry are attempting to influence the Senate\u2019s Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue by marketing packaged juices as healthy products, a move the association says would undermine public health aims and mislead consumers.<\/p>\n
Sana Ullah Ghumman<\/strong> said, “Public health must take priority over corporate interests,” and highlighted that Pakistan is confronting a health emergency driven by rising rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypertension and fatty liver disease. He argued that weakening the juice tax or other health levies would worsen financial pressure on families and the national healthcare system, and reiterated PANAH’s call to increase the Federal Excise Duty on all sweetened beverages, including fruit juices, to 40 percent in the Finance Bill 2026\u201327.<\/p>\n Prof. Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Mirza<\/strong> pointed to the World Health Organization’s 2015 guideline on free sugars, reaffirmed in 2023, noting that the term “free sugars” includes sugars naturally present in fruit juices and concentrates as well as sugars added during manufacturing. The WHO recommendation to limit free sugar intake to less than 10 percent of daily energy, and preferably below 5 percent for liquids, underscores that fruit juices are a significant source of free sugars and should be limited like other sweetened beverages.<\/p>\n Prof. Dr. Nusrat Ara Majeed<\/strong>, Commissioner for Asia Pacific Region \u2013 Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases, warned that any tax relief for packaged juices risks creating the false impression that these products are a healthy choice. She stressed that such policy concessions could contradict scientific evidence and public health guidance, and reminded consumers that the WHO promotes eating whole fruits and vegetables rather than drinking fruit juices.<\/p>\n PANAH and allied health experts said health taxes on sweetened beverages, including juices, are globally recognised as effective measures to discourage unhealthy consumption while raising government revenue. The association emphasised that the long-term economic burden of non-communicable diseases far outweighs any short-term commercial benefits claimed by the processed beverage sector and called on policymakers to prioritise public health in the upcoming Finance Bill. PANAH reiterated its demand for a 40 percent Federal Excise Duty increase and urged lawmakers to strengthen the juice tax to protect population health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PANAH urges stronger juice tax and a 40% FED increase to curb sugar intake and reduce non-communicable diseases in Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":19122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19123","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\/19123","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=19123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}