{"id":2793,"date":"2025-06-12T09:56:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T04:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2025-06-12T08:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T03:09:24","slug":"civil-society-slams-budget-for-ignoring-public-health-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/2025\/06\/12\/civil-society-slams-budget-for-ignoring-public-health-crisis","title":{"rendered":"Civil Society Slams Budget for Ignoring Public Health Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Civil society groups and health experts have criticized the federal budget 2025\u201326 for failing to increase taxes on ultra-processed products (UPPs), while imposing additional levies on essential commodities like fuel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Labeling it an \u201canti-public health budget,\u201d they argue that the government\u2019s fiscal choices favor corporate interests over public well-being.<\/p>\n

They have urged lawmakers to introduce at least a 20 percent federal excise duty on UPPs during the ongoing budget approval phase.<\/p>\n

NCD Crisis Ignored by Budget Planners<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a Pakistani suffering a heart attack every minute, and over 1,100 deaths reported daily from diabetes and its complications, experts warn that Pakistan is facing a national health emergency.<\/p>\n

Health professionals highlight UPPs as a major driver of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity, cardiovascular issues, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers.<\/p>\n

These processed foods contain high levels of sugar, sodium, saturated fats, and trans-fats, making them particularly harmful.<\/p>\n

Experts believe taxing such products could reduce consumption and fund better healthcare infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Civil Society Calls for Bold Fiscal Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

These concerns were voiced at a media event organized by the Pakistan National Heart Association (PANAH), in collaboration with Heartfile, CPDI, PYCA, and other health advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

Speakers criticized the government for cutting the health budget by 16 percent compared to previous years.<\/p>\n

Sanaullah Ghumman of PANAH emphasized the dangers of UPPs like biscuits, candies, bakery goods, and sodas, calling for stronger taxation policies.<\/p>\n

Ghulam Abbas from the Pakistan Kidney Patients Association added that missing this tax opportunity risks millions of lives.<\/p>\n

The session ended with a united demand to align budgetary policies with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.4, which aims to cut premature deaths from NCDs through prevention and treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD: Civil society groups and health experts have criticized the federal budget 2025\u201326 for failing to increase taxes on ultra-processed products (UPPs), while imposing additional levies on essential commodities like fuel. Labeling it an \u201canti-public health budget,\u201d they argue that the government\u2019s fiscal choices favor corporate interests over public well-being. They have urged lawmakers to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[1406,1407,1408],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-healthbudget","tag-ncds","tag-upps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2795,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youdigital.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}