No check on illicit trade in cigarettes

Islamabad

Cigarette smuggling has been inflicting heavy losses to the national exchequer and at the same time this practice is also blatantly violating the printing of health warning ordinance which mandates the printing of pictorial health warning on every cigarette pack sold in Pakistan.

A country wide survey has revealed that such smuggled cigarette packs are being sold in the market in stark violation of all the laws, rules and regulations. At the same time we have seen in the past weeks a flurry of advertisements and warning messages from the FBR but it appears that the retailers and dealers are undeterred.

When asked from the retailers they said that it is very easy to distinguish smuggled and non smuggled cigarettes by simply looking at the pack. “A smuggled cigarette pack would be the one without the pictorial health warning while the locally manufactured cigarette packs carry the pictorial as well as written health warnings,” a retailer said. He added that these smuggled cigarettes are being sold all over the country without any problem and added that these are popular because they are good in quality and cheaper in price too.

The Chairman of the ‘Retailers Association’, Haji Mobeen, when contacted for his views about the sale of these smuggled cigarettes said that they are doing a business and they are never prevented by anybody from their business. “Neither any official from the health departments or from law enforcing agencies have ever stopped by to check or question the sale of these foreign brands (smuggled) cigarettes,” the Chairman of the ‘Retailers Association’ said.

He pointed out that if the sale of these smuggled brands of cigarettes has to be stopped, it should be stopped at the source from where these are coming into Pakistan. “We are only selling these because these are available to us freely in the wholesale market,” Haji Mobeen said.

The Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad, Mr Amir Ahmed Ali, when contacted for his views on the prevailing situation, said that the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration has already been cracking down on ‘smoking’ and its latest initiative was the drive against ‘Sheesha Parlors and other such outlets’ where youth, both boys and girls, were indulging in ‘Sheesha smoking’ habits.

“Now we are moving ahead and we have already established a ‘Tobacco Cell’ in the ICT to monitor not only ‘Sheesha smoking’ but also the sale of these smuggled cigarettes which are not carrying the pictorial and the written health warnings, as is laid down in the law,” the Deputy Commissioner Islamabad said.

“We have already scheduled a meeting of this ‘Tobacco Cell’ next week in which we intend to involve the representatives of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), because the wholesalers as well as the retailers engaged in these smuggled cigarettes will be directly affected.

When contacted, a legal expert, well versed in tobacco, explained that the Pictorial health warning law makes it mandatory to print the specified picture on any pack which is to be sold in Pakistan irrespective of where it is manufactured, meaning that any pack which is to be imported into the country should also carry the pictorial health warning.

So, he added, any pack which does not have the said warning is surely smuggled and violates numerous laws including the printing of health warning ordinance 1979 which is punishable by 2 years imprisonment.

However evidently despite this easy distinguishing feature the government is unable to do anything to prevent the smuggling and illegal sale of these cigarettes, going on openly all over the country. The rampant sale of smuggled cigarettes is a clear violation of national law and the government is unmoved.

It is unfortunate that billions of smuggled cigarettes are sold in the country undermining the government’s public health agenda and causing losses in billions to the national exchequer. Smuggled cigarettes have increased their sales by 65% in the last year. The government must take concrete action to stop this inflow of smuggled cigarettes” a local tobacco industry official said on the customary condition of not to be quoted.