Economist for introducing tobacco taxation policy
Tuesday, 23 June 2015
Eminent economist Prof Abul Barkat on Monday suggested introducing a tobacco taxation policy to effectively control the use of tobacco products in the country, reports UNB.
"Bangladesh is a signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which asks its member states to cut tobacco use by raising tax on tobacco products. But, it's a matter of regret that Bangladesh is yet to announce a policy related to tobacco taxation," he told a press conference.
Human Development Research Centre (HDRC), Progga, Anti Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK) jointly organised the post-budget press conference at the Jatiya Press Club.
Reading out a written statement, Prof Barkat said the relation between price and consumption of tobacco products is quite opposite. "If the price of tobacco product declines, its consumption goes up and if the price of tobacco product increases, its consumption reduces."
He said at present there are different price slabs of tobacco products, which makes tobacco taxation complex. Besides, tax is not imposed in all tobacco products. As a result, tobacco products still remain cheap and available in the market. "This is a bad politics of tobacco or political economy of protecting the interest of the tobacco industry."
Observing that the budget for fiscal 2015-16 continues the facilities for the multinational tobacco companies, the economist suggested imposing specific excise tax on cigarettes cancelling different price slabs of cigarettes as there are now four price slabs of cigarettes in the country.
As tax on bidi is very low in the country, Prof Barkat also suggested imposing a specific tax of Tk 10 on a 25-trick bidi packet from the 2015-16 fiscal and it should be increased to Tk 15 from fiscal 2016-17 and Tk 25 from fiscal 2017-18.
Prof Barkat recommended introducing specific excise duty on smokeless tobacco products like jarda and gul, and asked the authorities concerned to impose a tax of Tk 150 on a 100 gram packet of smokeless tobacco.