Philip Morris (Pakistan) Limited (PMPKL) has urged authorities to take targeted enforcement measures at the retail and distribution levels to curb the growing illicit cigarette trade.
The ongoing practice continues to drain Pakistan’s economy and undermine legal businesses.
Khurram Qamar, Director External Affairs at PMPKL, said this while talking to a group of journalists. He said that illegal cigarettes now account for more than 57 per cent of Pakistan’s cigarette market. “It creates an uneven playing field that severely disadvantages compliant manufacturers.”
Khurram emphasised how enforcement needs to be carried out in a focused manner for it to have a lasting impact. Conducting multiple raids in spread-out areas leaves illicit manufacturers unaffected. Instead, the enforcement should target selected areas and retailers.
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‘Enforcement carried out in this manner would lead to illicit being eradicated from these areas. It would have a greater impact on not just the retailers who sell illicit but the manufacturers as well,’ he explained.
Mr Qamar urged intensifying raids so that retailers understand the repercussions of stocking and retailing illicit cigarettes. He pointed out how the sale of illicit cigarettes has become normalised. It becomes normal where retailers have no reservations in stocking cigarettes without graphical health warning and Track & Trace. ‘This normalisation of a criminal activity and violation needs to be curtailed.’
“This is not just a challenge for PMPKL, it is a national economic issue,” he said. Mr Qamar added that illicit trade drains over Rs 310 billion (around $1 billion) annually. Despite these challenges, PMPKL continues to be a major contributor to Pakistan’s formal economy. Out of 52 tobacco companies operating in the country, only two legal players, including PMPKL, account for nearly 98 per cent of total tobacco tax revenues.
Khurram also welcomed the government’s Track & Trace system. He, however, stressed that its implementation in letter and spirit remains long overdue. Khurram Qamar said that PMPKL was among the first companies to fully install and implement the system across its operations. Yet, he believes, broader enforcement among tobacco companies is still lacking.
“Only strong and sustained enforcement against non-compliant distributors and retailers can restore market balance, safeguard billions in lost revenue, and strengthen Pakistan’s economic future,” he added.
