Cigarettes to get costlier

The prices of cigarette are going to increase as the government proposes to hike supplementary duty on cigarette containing tobacco products and double the VAT on cigarette paper.

Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali made the announcement while unveiling the national budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 in the parliament on Thursday.

“Cigarette is outright harmful for human health. In order to reduce the consumption of tobacco and such kind of products and to increase revenue from this sector, I propose to fix supplementary duty at 66 per cent instead of 65 per cent on cigarette containing tobacco products stated in the second schedule of the act,” the finance minister added.

The Value Added Tax (VAT) on cigarette or bidi paper has been doubled.

“I propose to fix 15 per cent VAT instead of 7.5 per cent at local manufacturing stage on cigarette paper/bidi paper,” the finance minister said.