Bangladesh is one of the most tobacco consuming countries in the world. In this country the price of cigarettes is very low, bidi is cheaper. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the per capita national income (nominal) has increased by 25.4 percent in 2016-17 as compared to 2015-16. However, the price of most cigarettes has remained almost unchanged or has increased slightly. As a result, cigarettes are becoming more readily available. That is why it is important to increase the price of cigarettes through tax hike. This was stated by former chief consultant of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Bangladesh Dr. Shariful Alam in a consultation meeting in titled, 'role of media in building a tobacco free Bangladesh 2040' held on 25 March 2021 at the health sector of Dhaka Ahsania Mission.

Iqbal Masud, Director, Health and Wash Sector, Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Abdus Salam Mia, Grants Manager, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Bangladesh and Sarkar Shams Bin Sharif, Communications Officer, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Bangladesh spoke at the meeting.  

Rezaur Rahman Rizvi, Media Manager (Tobacco Control Project), Dhaka Ahsania Mission  moderated the meeting and Md. Shariful Islam, Project Coordinator(Tobacco Control Project), Dhaka Ahsania Mission presented the keynote paper titled 'Way Forward to tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040: Context Tobacco Tax'.

In the the keynote paper, the proposal for cigarettes in the financial year 2021-2022 was to introduce a specific excise (supplementary) duty based on the price level of all cigarette brands with uniform coverage (supplementary duty 65% of final retail price). Determining the retail price of cigarettes at TK 50 per 10 sticks and imposing a specific supplementary duty of TK 32.50. At the medium tier, the retail price of every 10 sticks of cigarettes is fixed at tk70. At the high tier, the retail price of 10 sticks of cigarettes is fixed at Tk 110 and a fixed supplementary duty of Tk 71.50 and at the premium tier, the retail price of 10 sticks of cigarettes is fixed at Tk 140 and the fixed price of Tk 91 is fixed. On the other hand, it is proposed that in the medium term (2021-22 to 2025-28), the price and tax gap between cigarette brands will be reduced and the tires from 4 to 2.

Iqbal Masud said, tobacco is involved in six of the eight leading causes of preventable death worldwide. In Bangladesh, more than 161 thousand people die every year from diseases caused by tobacco use. But we are not as concerned about it as we should be.

Abdus Salam Mia, Grants Manager said at the meeting that a supplementary duty has been proposed on all tobacco products at a percentage rate. Cigarettes are very cheap and readily available in the market due to the multi-layered tax structure of cigarettes depending on the features and brands. As a result, consumers are able to choose cheaper cigarettes instead of quitting, and the use of cigarettes has been relatively similar in recent years. The availability of tobacco products must also be reduced through tax hikes.

Sarkar Shams Bin Sharif said reforming the existing tax system as recommended in the 2021-22 fiscal year would reduce usage, save lives and increase revenue. In addition, cigarette use will decrease by 1% per year. About 1.1 million adult smokers will be encouraged to quit smoking and more than 0.8 million young people will be discouraged from starting smoking; In the long run, it will be possible to prevent the untimely death of 0.4 million current smokers and 0.4 million young people, additional revenue of Tk 34 billion will be earned from supplementary duty, health development surcharge and VAT over the financial year 2020-21. In addition, higher cigarette prices will encourage relatively low-income people to quit smoking, and limit smokers' ability to choose a cheaper brand.

The meeting made some recommendations on tobacco control. These are: To reduce the easy availability of tobacco products, specific supplementary tariffs have to be increased regularly in line with inflation and income growth. To simplify the taxation process, the existing divisions between tobacco products need to be removed. All smokeless tobacco products should be brought under the net. To formulate and implement a simple and effective tobacco tax policy (for a period of 5 years) which will contribute to reduction of tobacco use and increase in revenue and reinstatement of 25 per cent export duty on tobacco products.

Eleven journalists from dailies and online news portals participated in the exchange of views in collaboration with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. They are: Moin Abdullah (Daily Amader Somoy), Nasir Uddin (Daily Independent), Saiful Islam (Daily Bangladesh Today), Zahidul Islam Rony (Daily Sangbad Pratidin), Hasan Bipul (bdnews24.com), Jubair Ahmed Nobin (Daily Bangladesh Journal), Salauddin Chowdhury (Daily Bangladesher Khobor), Sumon Mostafa (NewsG24.com), Munir Zarif (Daily Manabkantha), Ahmed Tepantar (Daily Ajkaler Khabar) and Anjaan Das (Daily Alokito Somoy). The participating journalists said that they would take up the issue of tobacco tax hike with the government and the concerned authorities.