Staff Reporter :
Only strong tobacco tax measures and control law can curb the massive death toll and other losses caused by tobacco usehas said exparts.
Experts made these remarks at a meeting of Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) members, held at the BMA Bhaban in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Increasing tobacco tax is globally recognised as an effective tool to minimize tobacco use but the tobacco tax structure of Bangladesh is totally wrong which has found tobacco products quite cheap and affordable in the country.
The current structure has been encouraging tobacco use, particularly among the youth and the poor, thus increasing the deaths and illnesses caused by tobacco, claimed in a press release.
The Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Score Card published in 2024 by the Bloomberg School of Public Health of Johns Hopkins University has also revealed a frustrating picture of Bangladesh, the experts said.
The scorecard is based on four factors: cigarette price, change in affordability, tax structure, and tax share of retail price. Bangladesh’s overall score is only 1.13 out of 5, which was 2.38 earlier.
While Bangladesh has scored poorly in all four factors, the nil score in the ‘affordability’ factor slashed the total country score in half, compared with the previous score, added the release.
Experts also put forth a number of recommendations, including eliminating provision for designated smoking areas (DSAs) in all public places and public transport, banning display of tobacco packs at points-of-sale, banning corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs of tobacco companies.
During the meeting, participated by 53 members of ATMA, the co-convener, Mizan Chowdhury and Hasan Shahriar of PROGGA (ATMA Secretariat) Sajjadur Rahman, deputy editor, The Business Standard; Salma Yasmin Rita, senior news editor, Bangla Vision; MdMostafizur Rahman, Bangladesh lead policy adviser, Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids (CTFK); MortuzaHaiderLiton, convener, ATMA; Nadira Kiron, co-convener, ATMA; and ABMZubair, member-secretary, ATMA, among other were present there.