‘Pay heed to anti-tobacco orgs, save 11 lakh lives’

Staff Reporter :
Hiking the prices of tobacco products through effective taxation will not only increase the government’s revenue earnings but also reduce the prevalence of tobacco use and, thereby, the government’s healthcare costs attributable to tobacco-induced diseases.

Speakers said this in the journalists’ workshop titled ‘Tobacco Tax and Price Measures: National Budget FY 2024-25’, held at the BMA Bhaban of the capital, jointly organised by PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and ATMA (Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance) on Monday.

A total of 27 journalists from print, television, and online media outlets participated in the workshop.

In the workshop, the journalists stressed the need to hike the taxes on tobacco products in the upcoming national budget for FY 2024-25.

They further articulated that the prices of tobacco products, particularly the price and tax rate of low-tier cigarettes, must be increased to push these products out of the purchasing capacity of the youth and the poor.

Dr. Syed Mahfuzul Huq, National Professional Officer, World Health Organisation (WHO) Bangladesh, and Hasan Shahriar, Project Head, Tobacco Control, PROGGA, delivered the keynote presentation before journalists.

Among the discussants were Md. Abdus Salam, Programme’s Manager (Bangladesh) for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), Liton Haider, Convener of ATMA, Mizan Chowdhury, Co-Convener of ATMA, and ABM Zubair, Executive Director, PROGGA.

It was informed that the prices of all types of tobacco products in Bangladesh are already considerably low. Compared to the prices of essential commodities, it is evident that these deadly products are getting even cheaper.

An analysis of the average retail prices of essential commodities in 07 metropolitan cities of the country (Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, and Rangpur) between July 4, 2021, and July 4, 2023, as reported by the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), shows that the price of loose sugar has seen an 89 percent hike in this period; the hike is 87 percent for potatoes, 75 percent for loose flour, 47 percent for pangash fish, 43 percent for eggs, and 34 percent for soybean oil. During this same timeframe, the prices of different tiers of cigarettes ranged between 6 and 15 percent.

It should be noted that low-tier cigarettes constitute 75 percent of the total cigarette market in Bangladesh. The supplementary duty imposed on this tier is merely 58 percent.

It is, therefore, quite evident that, compared to other cigarette tiers, hiking prices and supplementary duty on low-tier cigarettes will encourage a much larger number of low-income tobacco users to quit.

The tobacco prices and taxation proposals presented during the workshop are as follows: The retail price of low-tier cigarettes should be increased to BDT 60 for 10 sticks from the existing BDT 45, followed by a 63 percent supplementary duty.

The prices of 10 sticks should be set at BDT 80, 130, and 170 for medium, high, and premium tiers, respectively, followed by the existing 65 percent supplementary duty on these three tiers.

For non-filtered bidis, the retail price should be BDT 25 for 25 sticks. In the case of filtered bidis, the retail price for 20 sticks should be set at BDT 20. Both prices should be followed by a 45 percent supplementary duty.

Regarding smokeless tobacco, the retail price for 10 grams of jarda and gul should be BDT 55 and BDT 30, followed by 60 percent supplementary duty. The budget proposals also suggest continuing the existing 15 percent VAT and 1 percent health development surcharge (HDS) on the retail prices of tobacco products.