Govt counting revenue loss for cigarette companies’ tricks

UNB  :
A market assessment conducted by non-governmental research organisation Unnayan Shamannay found that the government is counting huge losses in earning revenue due to the substantial gap between declared price and market price of cigarettes.

In the current tax structure, cigarettes are sold in four tiers and each of these tiers has a fixed minimum declared price.

But, practically, both single stick cigarettes and cigarette packets are currently being sold at a higher price than the market price.

The cigarette companies pay taxes to the government according to the declared price, but consumers are buying cigarettes at a higher price.
“The government isn’t receiving any revenue from this additional expenditure,”

a press release by Unnayan Shamannay reads. The results of the assessment were unveiled through a virtual discussion titled “Impact of the Gap Between Declared Price and Market Price on Government Revenue.”

The panelists of the discussion session included Senior Research Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr. S.M. Zulfiqar Ali, Research Director of Centre for Policy Dialogue Dr. Khondaker Golam Moazzem and Chief Business Reporter of Ekattor TV, Sushanta K. Sinha. Unnayan Shamannay’s Head of Programmes Shaheen ul Alam moderated the discussion session.

The results of the market assessment were presented by the Lead Economist of Unnayan Shamannay Mr. Robert Shuvra Guda.