Excise Tax Increase on Cigarettes: A Laudable Policy that Needs to be Sustained

The current fiscal year has been unusual for cigarette tax policy in Pakistan. The government took commendable measures of substantially increasing the rates of Federal Excise Duty (FED) on cigarettes, which was unprecedented in two aspects. First, the tax changes were made three times during the ongoing fiscal year. Second, the last rise was around 150 per cent, the largest one-time increase in excise tax rates so far.