Anti-tobacco campaigners and organisations have demanded to increase the prices of cigarettes and other tobacco products by imposing specific supplementary duties in the upcoming budget in order to protect the young generation from its harmful effects.
They issued the demand at a virtual event where the participants also formed a human chain, a press release said.
The participants uploaded their pictures holding festoons and placards and posted those using #RaiseTaxSaveLivesBD hashtags.
The event was organised by the research and advocacy organisation PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) with support from Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids (CTFK).
The anti-tobacco organisations demanded that the retail price for the low-tier cigarettes should be set at Tk 50 for 10 sticks by imposing Tk 32.50 as specific supplementary duty in the next budget for FY2022-23.
In the medium-tier, the retail price should be set at Tk 75 with Tk 48.75 supplementary duty and in the high-tier, the retail price and supplementary duty for 10 sticks should be followed by Tk 120 and Tk 78 respectively.
The retail price of the premium tier cigarettes should be set at Tk 150 for 10 sticks with Tk 97.50 as supplementary tax.
For non-filtered bidis, the retail price should be hiked to Tk 25 for 25 sticks with Tk 11.25 as specific supplementary duty.
Realisation of the tax and pricing proposals would encourage 1.3 million adults to refrain from smoking, to prevent the premature deaths of 4.45 lakh adults and 4.48 lakh youths in the long run, and help the government to earn additional revenue of Tk 9,200 crore, read the release.
In case of smokeless tobacco products, the retail prices for 10 grams of jarda should be raised to Tk 45 with Tk 27 as 60 per cent supplementary duty. For 10 grams of gul, the retail price should be enhanced to Tk 25 with Tk 15 as specific supplementary duty.
PROGGA Executive Director ABM Zubair said, “Increasing tobacco products’ prices by imposing specific supplementary duties would raise government revenues and reduce tobacco-related deaths and losses.”
