National May 20, 2021 LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The total costs attributable to all smoking-related diseases and deaths in Pakistan cost the national exchequer over $3.85 billion (Rs589.6 billion) annually while the tobacco industry’s total tax contribution is approximately just 20 percent of the smoking’s total cost. A policy brief, “The Huge Economic Cost of Tobacco-Induced Diseases in Pakistan,” by Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) reveals this, adding that indirect costs (morbidity and mortality) make up 70 percent of the total cost. The major share (71 percent) of the total smoking-induced cost comes from cancer, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases. The actual economic cost, which includes morbidity, mortality, and opportunity costs, is fivefold the tax revenue collected from the tobacco industry, it said.