Raise taxes to curb tobacco use: Experts

The existing tax structure of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on tobacco products is not effective in controlling tobacco use, said experts at a programme on Thursday.

At a workshop organised by Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) at a city hotel, the organisation proposed raising tax rates and revising the tax system to discourage tobacco use.

Md Hasan Shahriar, program head of Progga, an anti-tobacco platform, gave the keynote address at the workshop presided over by DORP President M Azhar Ali Talukder.

Presenting the main article, Hasan Shahriar highlighted the current status of tobacco in the country and the steps necessary to curb tobacco use.

For a 10-cigarette pack, Hasan Shahriar proposed setting the retail price at Tk50 for low-tier cigarettes with a Tk32.50 supplementary duty (SD), Tk75 for medium-tier cigarettes with Tk48.75 SD, Tk120 for higher end cigarettes with Tk78 SD, and Tk150 for premium cigarettes with SD of Tk97.50.

He also wanted Tk25 as the retail price for 25 non-filtered bidi sticks with Tk11.25 SD, and Tk20 for 20 filtered  bidis, with Tk9 SD. That way the SD rate for both filtered and non-filtered bidis will amount to 45% of their retail price.

For smokeless tobacco products, he demanded setting the price per 10-gram of  jarda and gul at Tk45 and Tk25, respectively, with a 60% supplementary duty included in the final retail prices.

The existing 1% surcharge and 15% value added tax (VAT) on all tobacco products should remain in place.

DORP President Azhar Ali Talukder said, "If the proposed tax system is implemented, government revenues will increase about Tk9,200 crore and the number of smokers will come down from 15.1% to 14.1%."

MD Abdus Salam Mia, grants manager at Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), Md Ataur Rahman Masud, senior policy advisor at CTFK, Mohammad Zobair Hassan, deputy executive director of DORP, and journalist Zakir Hosen Liton, among others, also spoke at the event.