In a sharp reaction to the proposed national budget for FY2022-23, two anti-tobacco organisations said it will encourage the use of tobacco products among the poor and the youth and thus hike health expenditure depriving the government of additional revenue. 

“The proposed budget for FY 2022-23 failed to take into account any of the demands raised by anti-tobacco organizations, and is in grave conflict with the Honorable Prime Minister's vision for a tobacco-free Bangladesh,” they said in a joint reaction sent to the media.

The two organizations are Knowledge for Progress (PROGGA) and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA).

They said the proposed budget raises the price for 10 sticks of low-tier cigarettes by only Taka 1, setting the price at Taka 40. It shows only a 2.56 per cent increase in this tier. Such an increase is negligible considering the fact that the National Per Capita Income (Nominal) has increased by nearly 10 percent.

As a result of this budgetary measure, the real price of cigarettes will drastically fall and the use of cheap cigarettes will increase among the poor and the youth, they said.

In the proposed budget, the price of 10 sticks of medium-tier cigarettes has been increased to Taka 65 from Taka 63, which shows a 3.17 percent increase. In the high and premier tiers, the prices have been increased from Taka 102 to Taka 111 (8.82 percent hike) and from Taka 135 to Taka 142 (5.18 percent hike) respectively, they mentioned.

When compared to the 10 per cent increase in the National Per Capita Income (Nominal), it shows that such a negligible increase will only decrease the real prices of cigarettes, making all sorts of brands even cheaper and encouraging more and more people to get hooked on this deadly addiction, they said

On the other hand, ignoring the anti-tobacco organizations' demand to introduce specific supplementary duty will complicate revenue collection and allow tobacco companies to benefit from rampant tax evasion and others, they added.

The prices of and taxes on bidi, jarda, and gul, have been kept unchanged which is frustrating considering the repercussion of these deadly products on public health, said the anti-tobacco platforms.

The low-income people constitute the majority of bidi users. Besides, more than 50 percent of all adult tobacco users in Bangladesh tend to use smokeless tobacco products (SLTs), with the majority of them being the poor and the women, they said.

In his reaction to the proposed budget for FY 2022-23, PROGGA Executive Director ABM Zubair said, "The prices of cheap cigarettes have remained almost unchanged. It also lacks any directive with regard to introducing specific supplementary duty, a long-time demand of anti-tobacco activists. We demand that the government introduce specific supplementary duty and hike prices to bring tobacco products beyond the affordability of the masses."

According to WHO Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2017, 35.3 percent of all adults (15 y/o and above) use tobacco. Tobacco claims more than 161,000 lives a year (Tobacco Atlas 2019). Realization of the tax and pricing measures, as proposed by anti-tobacco activists, would encourage 1.3 million adults to quit smoking, prevent the deaths of 445,000 adults and 448,000 youths, and earn BDT 9,200 crores in additional revenues.