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BackgroundWhile there is a large literature on the magnitude of price elasticity of cigarette demand, less is known about the same for chewed tobacco. Moreover, the studies on cigarette demand in Pakistan tend to ignore the heterogeneity in the smoking behaviour. This study estimates price elasticity for cigarette and chewed tobacco demand across different income groups, provinces and regions; and use these coefficients for simulating Pakistan’s tax policy and its impact on revenue and health outcomes.MethodDeaton model was applied on the 2015–2016 Household Integrated Income and Consumption Survey dataset to estimate price elasticities of different tobacco products.ResultsThe demand for cigarettes is unitary elastic (−1.06), suggesting that a 1% increase in cigarette price would reduce its consumption by 1.06%. On the other hand, the demand for chewed tobacco is relatively inelastic (−0.55). Provincially, the own-price elasticity of cigarettes is negative and significant for all but Kyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province; whereas that of the chewed tobacco is negative and significant only for KP and Balochistan. Besides, the price elasticity of demand for both tobacco products is negative and significant only for lower income group and the rural region. The tax simulations favour a two-tiered tax system over the existing three-tiered system as the former will bring significantly better tax revenue and health outcomes.ConclusionsWhile confirming the effectiveness of tax policies in curbing tobacco use, this study concludes that higher tobacco taxes could increase tax revenue and improve public health in Pakistan.

The future of devolution plan in Pakistan may be analysed in view of our Convergence model. This model views stability of the local Govt. system drawn on Devolution Plan 2001. It claims that as there would be more volatile and non-committed (floating) number of agents in the political market and governance system, there is more probability of divergence; i.e. the system will remain unstable. Contrary to that more is the systematic trend in political market and governance system more is the probability that the convergence in the system occurs and that in turn leads to stability of the over all system. In this ‘Convergence’ Model different types of agents have been highlighted on the basis of their political affiliation and being in competition as ruling elite and/or their allies and non-ruling elite and/or their allies.

A sound fiscal policy is important to promote price stability and sustain growth in output and employment. Fiscal policy is regarded as an instrument that can be used to lessen short-run fluctuations in output and employment in many debates of macroeconomic policy. It can also be used to bring the economy to its potential level. If policymakers understand the relationship between government expenditure and government revenue, continuous government deficits can be prevented. Hence the relationship between government expenditure and government revenue has attracted significant interest. This is due to the fact that the relationship between government revenue and expenditure has an impact on the budget deficit. The causal relationship between government revenue and expenditure has remained an empirically debatable issue in the field of public finance. The question of which variable takes precedence over the other has been a central issue to this debate.

Agriculture is a critical domain, where technology can have a significant impact on increasing yields, improving crop quality, and reducing environmental impact. The use of renewable energy sources such as solar power in agriculture has gained momentum in recent years due to the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of farming operations. In addition to providing a source of clean energy, solar tracking systems can also be used for remote weather monitoring in the agricultural field. The ability to collect real-time data on weather parameters such as temperature, humidity, and rainfall can help farmers make informed decisions on irrigation, pest control, and other crop management practices. The main idea of this study is to present a system that can improve the efficiency of solar panels to provide constant power to the sensor in the agricultural field and transfer real-time data to the app. This research presents a mechanism to improve the arrangement of a photovoltaic (PV) array with solar power and to produce maximum energy. The proposed system changes its direction in two axes (azimuth and elevation) by detecting the difference between the position of the sun and the panel to track the sun using a light-dependent resistor. A testbed with a hardware experimental setup is designed to test the system’s capability to track according to the position of the sun effectively. In the end, real-time data are displayed using the Android app, and the weather data are transferred to the app using a GSM/WiFi module. This research improves the existing system, and results showed that the relative increase in power generation was up to 52%. Using intelligent artificial intelligence techniques with the QoS algorithm, the quality of service produced by the existing system is improved.