.webp)
The Anti-tobacco organisation Progotir Jonno Gyan (PROGGA) and the Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) have demanded to hike the price of low-tier cigarettes to help low-income people to quit smoking and boost their health safety.
They proposed for 10-15 per cent price hike of 10 sticks of low-tier cigarettes which would ultimately contribute to public health security and revenue growth, read a press release issued on Wednesday.
“Despite the large volume of sales, the revenue collection from the low segment is insufficient since the base price of low-tier cigarettes is very minimal than that of cigarettes from other tiers”, they said.
"Cigarette is a major domestic revenue-generating source in Bangladesh as it accounts for 10 per cent of the total revenue in every fiscal. In the last fiscal year, Govt collected Tk 29,500 crore as revenue from this sector."
They also added that out of four segments of cigarettes in the market, Low-tier cigarette accounts for almost 75 per cent of sales in Bangladesh and it poses a huge public health danger.
A joint study of the ARK Foundation of Bangladesh and Tobacconomics of the University of Illinois, Chicago showed that smoking among low-income people drops by 9 per cent if the price of cigarettes gets increased by 10 per cent.
However, the government did not increase the price of low-tier cigarettes to a major extent in the last few years. The price of 10 sticks of low-tier cigarettes has only increased by Tk 3 in the last 4 fiscal years. The price of 10 sticks of low-tier cigarettes was Tk 37 in 2019-2020 fiscal while the price of the same has reached Tk 40 in 2022-2023 fiscal.
Data from the National Board of Revenue (NBR) showed that Tk 28,500 crore came in the form of value-added tax and supplementary duty (SD) on cigarettes in fiscal 2020-21, which amounted to 13 per cent growth.
The revenue growth in the 2021-2022 fiscal, however, was only 4 per cent while the situation might remain unchanged in the current 2022-2023 fiscal also.
Bangladesh continues to remain highly dependent on cigarette and tobacco products for revenues as the sector had been experiencing 10-15 per cent growth in every fiscal. The growth, however, has dropped in recent times.
Experts and analysts related the decrease in revenue growth to inadequate price increments for low-tier cigarettes and advocated for maximising its base price for the interest of the national economy.
