Call for higher tobacco tax in FY25–26 budget

Staff Reporter :

To protect public health and achieve a tobacco-free Bangladesh, the Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) has urged the government to increase tobacco product prices and taxes in the upcoming national budget for the fiscal year 2025–26.

The demand was raised during a national seminar titled “Increasing the Price and Tax on Tobacco Products and Reforming the Tobacco Tax Policy in the National Budget for FY 2025–26,” held on Wednesday, at the CIRDAP Auditorium in the capital. The event was chaired by DORP’s Founder and CEO, AHM Noman.

Key speakers emphasised the urgent need for tobacco tax policy reform, particularly the inefficiency of the current four-tier pricing system for cigarettes.

Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Joint Secretary and Director General of the National Tobacco Control Cell, supported the proposal to merge the low and medium tiers, stating that the minimal price difference between them encourages switching rather than quitting, undermining public health goals.

DORP’s Deputy Executive Director Mohammad Zobair Hasan presented detailed budget proposals, including setting the minimum retail price of a 10-stick cigarette pack at Tk 90 for the merged tiers, Tk 140 for the high tier, and Tk 190 for the premium tier. He also recommended retaining the 67 percent supplementary duty, 15 percent VAT, and one percent health surcharge across all cigarette tiers.

The proposals extend to other tobacco products as well: Tk 25 for 25-stick non-filtered bidis, Tk 20 for 20-stick filtered bidis (both with 45 percent supplementary duty), and retail prices of Tk 55 for 10g of jarda and BDT 30 for 10g of gul, each with a 60 percent supplementary duty. All products would maintain the existing VAT and health surcharge.

Notably, the seminar celebrated the World Health Organization’s 2025 World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) Award granted to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

Md Tarek Hasan, First Secretary (Tax Policy) of the NBR, was present and received congratulations from attendees.

Speakers projected that implementing these reforms could reduce the national smoking rate from 15.1 percent to 13.03 percent, encouraging 2.4 million adults to quit and preventing 1.7 million youths from starting.

Long-term impacts could include the prevention of approximately 1.7 million premature deaths and the generation of BDT 200 billion in additional revenue—a 43 percent increase over the previous year.