Pre-Budget Webinar on Social Policy Orientation of Tax Policies in Pakistan

SPRC in collaboration with the Health Services Academy (HSA) organized an online Pre-budget webinar on “Social Policy Orientation of Tax Policies in Pakistan. The Case of Increasing Taxes on Smoking” on May 24th, 2022, with a panel of experts from public health, finance, economics and sociology.
In this 2-hour session, the speakers discussed the local use and impacts of Tobacco on the Pakistani population, the political economy of the country’s tobacco taxation policies and their challenges and regional lessons of success in effectively enhancing taxes on tobacco products.
Speakers emphasized the established harmful effects of tobacco use and the effectiveness of higher tobacco taxation in the current and future political scenario as evidence based strategy adopted by many regional countries with desired outcomes. In addition to that, Speakers also emphasized the use of anti-tobacco campaigns specifically focusing on the youth along with an anti-tobacco advisory group should be formulated with politicians, parliamentarians, subject and health experts to develop a momentum for this important movement.