MP for hiking duty by Tk 40-50 a packet in next budget

A lawmaker has urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to hike the duty on low-tier cigarettes by Tk 40-50 per packet in the FY24 budget.

Fazle Hossain Badsha, the member of parliament for Rajshahi Sadar, made the request in a recent letter to the NBR.

“It is necessary to increase the duty on low-end cigarettes in the next budget to create a smart Bangladesh by controlling tobacco use, ensuring health protection, and implementing Vision 2041,” he said in the letter.

The NBR had imposed a low duty on low-tier cigarettes in the past few financial years, though such products hold 75 per cent of the market share.

“The revenue board does not collect the expected revenue from this. As a result, the use of tobacco is not decreasing to the expected level, though the other steps taken to make the country tobacco-free by 2040, as announced by the prime minister, are playing a strong role in development,” the letter read.

The government in the FY23 budget increased the prices of low-tier cigarettes (10 sticks) by Tk 1 to Tk 40, setting a supplementary duty of 57 per cent.

Besides, the minimum price of mid-tier cigarettes (10 sticks) was increased by Tk 2 to Tk 65, high-tier ones (10 sticks) by Tk 9 to Tk 111, and premium-tier ones by Tk 7 to Tk 142. The supplementary duty was fixed at 65 per cent for the three tiers.

But bidi prices remained the same as that in the previous budget.