The prices of tobacco products – cigarette, Bidi and such other products—have gone slightly up in the proposed national budget for 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali placed the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year in Parliament on Thursday afternoon.
“Cigarette is outright harmful for human health. In order to reduce the consumption of tobacco and such kind of products and to increase revenue from this sector, I propose to fix supplementary duty at 66% instead of 65% on cigarette containing tobacco products stated in the second schedule of the Act,” he said in his budget speech delivered in the House.
The proposed budget raised the retail prices of 10 sticks of low-tier cigarettes to BDT 50 from the existing Tk 45 and the supplementary duty by 2 percent (from existing 58 percent to 60 percent).
The prices of 10 sticks of medium and high- tier cigarettes are set at Tk 70 (from existing Tk 67) and TK 120 (from existing TK 113) respectively., while the price of 10 sticks of premium-tier cigarettes has been raised to Tk 160 (from existing Tk 150. The supplementary duty (SD) in all these tiers has been raised by 0.5 percent to 65.5 percent from existing 65 percent.
On the other hand, the prices of 10 grams of jarda and gul have been raised by Tk 3 (6.67 percent) and Tk 2 (8.7 percent) respectively but the supplementary duty remains unchanged.
The Finance Minister said, “I propose to increase the price level of low slab 10-sticks/pack cigarettes to Tk. 50 and higher and supplementary duty to 60 percent. Apart from this, I propose to increase the price level of medium slab 10-sticks/pack cigarettes to Tk. 70 and higher, high slab to Tk. 120 and higher and premium slab to Tk. 160 and higher and the rate of supplementary duty for these three slabs to 65.5 percent.”
“I propose to keep unchanged the MRP of non-filtered 25-stick/pack bidi at Tk. 18, 12-stick/pack bidi at Tk. 9 and 8-stick/pack bidi at Tk. 6 and 30 percent supplementary duty for all. I also propose to continue existing price of filtered 20stick/pack bidi at Tk. 19, 10- stick/pack bidi Tk. 10 and supplementary duty 40 percent for all,” he added.