Inadequate study and data on bidi industry are making the authorities confused over framing effective fiscal measures to check consumption of health hazardous item.
Bidi is also called a common man's 'cigarette'.
The bidi industry insiders have been furnishing similar excuses and data for years favouring the industry without mentioning any source or study. This is a tactic to confuse the government's policymakers prior to framing new fiscal measures, sources concerned said.
The lobbyist group of bidi industry usually gear up their efforts at the time of budget exercise of the government, they said.
"Bidi industry insiders are highlighting the harmful effects of cigarettes only while both the items contain similar kinds of health hazardous ingredients as per the World Health Organisation (WHO)," said WHO technical officer Dr Mahfuzul Huq.
They are presenting fabricated and twisted data on the size of the industry having some 2.5 million workers without mentioning any source or study, he said.
"We can say those data are fabricated ones as similar information and logic are being presented every year before the policymakers and the general public," he said.
Dr Sohel Reza Choudhury, Professor of the Department of Epidemiology and Research at the National Heart Foundation Hospital and Research Institute, said bidi industry insiders never disclose the list of their workers but cite an inflated figure.
"The sector fuels the growth of informal economy. Exact production of bidi is still unknown but it is easier to figure out cigarette production," he added.
There is no scope to favour any of the industry, bidi or cigarette, as both are similarly hazardous for public health, he added.
There are 195 bidi companies with some 75,000 workers in Bangladesh, according to a study of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) in 2013.
The NBR conducted the study in 2013 with the support of the WHO and the economics department of the Dhaka University. However, the findings of the study are yet to be made public.
From private sector, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), a non-government organisation, with the support of Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use', conducted a study 'Bidi in Bangladesh: Myths and Reality' in 2012.
It identified 117 bidi factories in 31 districts out of 64 districts. The study also found that 65 per cent of the bidi factory owners diversified their business to other areas.
It also found the bidi factory owners to be economically sound and politically influential to save their bidi industries.
Taifur Rahman, advocacy and media coordinator of the CTFK, said some big companies are producing bidi which has around 95 per cent market share.
"It is a lame excuse that increase of tax on bidi will destroy the industry," he added.
Dr Mahfuz said the government increased the price slab or tax base of bidi slightly in the current fiscal year's budget while tax rates (supplementary duty) remained the same during the last four years.
A senior tax official said the National Board of Revenue (NBR) could not stand on its position on increasing tax on bidi as lawmakers favoured the industry as their vote-bank.
"The NBR aims to increase taxes on both cigarettes and bidi every year in line with the WHO recommendation. A tobacco tax cell in the NBR is working on it," he said.
Bidi industry insiders compile DO (demy official) letters, signed by members of parliament (MPs), and submit those to the Finance Minister and the NBR to block imposition of new tax and withdraw existing ones. Â
In a different move last year, some MPs urged the government to impose tax on both bidi and cigarettes considering those as similarly harmful.
The lobby against imposition of tax on bidi starts every year ahead of pre-budget discussions with the stakeholders.
A recent publication claimed that cigarette industry causes loss worth Tk 170 billion in a year by burning wood while bidi industry does not.
The bidi industry also sought imposition of higher tax and withdrawal of fourth price slab for cheap cigarettes so that low-income people could be diverted to bidi.
Anti-tobacco activists and economists said the tax should be imposed at 70 per cent rate on retail prices of all types of tobacco items, both smoke and smokeless, by scrapping complex price slab system.
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