Cigarette prices have increased by 250%, About Rs 520 per packet.

The price of various cigarette brands, including Marlboro, Benson and Hedges, Gold Leaf, Capstan, Gold Flake, Dunhill, Embassy, and Morven Gold, has increased significantly as a result of the supplementary finance bill that the finance minister submitted to the parliament this week, proposing to impose additional taxes and duties of Rs 170 billion on luxury goods like cigarettes.

It should be noted that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) announced the FED rise on premium brands on Tuesday, increasing the price by 153%, from Rs6.5 a cigarette to Rs16.5 per cigarette. For less costly brands, the increase in price per stick is 98% higher, from Rs2.55 to Rs5.05.

In response to the dramatic increase in FED, Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd., one of the largest multinational tobacco companies in Pakistan, asserted that the most recent increase in FED on cigarettes by more than 150% will result in a price increase of more than 250% when compared to the prices of cigarettes in the financial year 2022. (Q1, 2022).

“The extraordinary tax increase for tobacco corporations that pay taxes will in fact benefit Pakistan’s huge illicit cigarette industry. According to a statement from Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd, a spokeswoman, “This will also result in large deficits in government revenue as the volumes will massively move from the tax-paid sector to the non-tax-paid sector, as it has often been seen in the past.