The Pakistani government has reduced the incidence of central excise duty on upmarket cigarette brands by 2 per cent in order to make domestically-produced cigarettes more competitive against smuggled products; the duty rates of the other cigarette price categories remain unchanged

The country’s authorities are worried about a 7 per cent fall in tax revenue from the cigarette industry, which is mainly caused by rising sales of smuggled goods. The Central Board of Revenue declared recently that the country is losing approximately Rs 8 billion a year because of duty evasion caused by cigarette contraband.