Raising tobacco tax

Media reports suggest enhancement of tax on tobacco. I fully agree with it. The government can, and should raise the tobacco tax to at least 70 per cent. Since we are not banning tobacco totally we should make this undesirable habit expensive by increasing our revenues. The government should implement this measure and make the extra revenue available to increase the expenditure on health care or education.
The fines levied for violating the law of smoking in public places should also be increased and could well be doubled, and strictly imposed all over the country. How about introducing a 'smoking permit'? Like the wine permit, this should be held by all smokers and anyone found smoking without a permit, should be heavily fined.
To enforce these regulations, surprise raids could be carried out in public places where people tend to light up cigarettes. For such an offence the fine should be the heaviest as the smokers keep smoking standing beside the non-smokers. Such steps may gradually reduce the tendency of people to smoke.
S A Mansoor
Dhaka