MPs’ plea not to raise bidi tax

Twenty-one lawmakers have urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) not to raise tax on bidi in the next fiscal budget, discounting public health hazards it causes.
The members of parliament (MPs) have sent separate demi-official letters on the pad of the national parliament to the revenue board.
NBR officials said it is the highest number of requests they have so far received for practical considerations in the upcoming budget.
The MPs claimed an estimated 2.5 million workers are involved in the bidi industry across the country.
They said the government should not impose tax on bidi considering a large number of employments.
The parliamentarians also made a plea to declare it as a cottage industry in the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2019-20.
Currently, there are 30 to 35 per cent supplementary duty, 15 per cent VAT (value-added tax) and 1.0 per cent health development surcharge on bidi.
However, there are different retail price slabs on bidi based on filters and without filters.
In the pre-budget proposal, anti-tobacco activists and health experts proposed to impose 45 per cent ad valorem duty along with existing VAT and health surcharge.
They also called for the NBR to eliminate the use of price slabs as the basis for differential taxation.
NBR officials said the prevalence of smoking bidi has reduced significantly after 2017 with the revision of tax structure.
The anti-tobacco activists are demanding simplification of tax structure for bidi by merging filter and non-filter options, they added.
Former NBR chairman Dr Nasiruddin Ahmed, who is now conducting research on tobacco, said the lawmakers' mention of the number of bidi workers is not correct.
"In a door-to-door field survey, we've found less than 0.2 million workers involved in the industry," he told the FE.
Bidi industry is declining as many people are switching to low-brand cigarettes quitting bidi, he observed.
Many bidi factory owners also have changed track and switched to other businesses now, Mr Ahmed continued.
According to NBR officials, MPs still consider bidi industry owners and stakeholders as their vote bank.
The lawmakers' lobby for this life-threatening item runs counter to the prime minister's vision is to build a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040, they said.
A latest study reveals that some 1,26,000 people died in 2018 as they suffered various diseases caused by tobacco consumption.
Bangladesh is one of the largest tobacco consumer globally, with over 46 million (43 per cent) adults consuming cigarettes, bidi, smokeless tobacco or others.
The government received Tk 228 billion in revenue from tobacco industry in FY 2017-18, but it incurred economic losses equivalent to Tk 305 billion for treatment and loss of productivity.

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