Eminent economist and convener of the National Anti-Tobacco Platform, Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad on Saturday said, tobacco products are becoming cheaper over time when compared to the prices of essential commodities which is an ominous sign for public health so the upcoming national budget must effectively hike the prices of tobacco products.
Dr. Ahmed made the remarks in a pre-budget meeting, organised by PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) at the National Press Club, Dhaka.
They have called for an effective hike in the prices of tobacco products in the upcoming FY 2024-25 national budget.
The two organizations have presented their tobacco taxation and pricing related proposals for upcoming FY today (20 April 2024, Saturday) during a press conference held at the Tofazzal Hossain Manik Miah Auditorium of Dr. Mahfuz Kabir, Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), said, "Currently 75 percent of total cigarette users belong to the low tier.
However, the supplementary duty (SD) on this tier stands at only 58 percent. Raising the SD to 63 percent would certainly reduce the prevalence of cigarette use and raise revenue inflow for the government." 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 04 July 2021 and 04 July 2023, as reported by the Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM), shows that 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, 34 percent for soybean oil, 30 percent for powdered milk, and 27 percent for broiler chicken. However, during this same timeframe, the hike in the prices of different tiers of cigarettes ranged between 6-15 percent only.
The tobacco prices and taxation proposals presented during the workshop are as follows: The panel of speakers in the event include Md. Abdus Salam, Program's Manager (Bangladesh) for Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), Mortuza Haider Liton, Convener, ATMA and ABM Zubair, Executive Director, PROGGA.