Public health experts on Wednesday called for a major overhaul of Bangladesh’s tobacco taxation and pricing system in the national budget for fiscal year 2026-27, saying a revised structure could prevent more than 372,000 youths from taking up smoking and save over 185,000 young lives in the long run.
The demand came at a national seminar titled “The Necessity of Effectively Increasing Taxes and Prices on All Tobacco Products in the Upcoming FY 2026-27 Budget for Protecting Public Health,” organised by the Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka.
Presenting the keynote paper, Dr Shafiun Nahin Shimul, Director of the Institute of Health Economics at Dhaka University, pointed out that Bangladesh currently has a four-tier cigarette pricing system – low, medium, high, and premium – with nearly 90 percent of cigarettes sold belonging to the low and medium tiers.
“Due to their affordability and accessibility, these cigarettes are rapidly addicting young people and low-income groups,” he said.
Shimul proposed merging the low and medium tiers in the upcoming fiscal year and setting the minimum retail price at Tk 100 per 10-stick pack, Tk 150 for the high tier, and Tk 200 for the premium tier, while maintaining a 67 percent supplementary duty across all tiers and imposing a specific tax of Tk 4 per pack.
He stated that implementing this tax and pricing proposal could discourage more than 372,000 youths from initiating smoking and prevent the premature deaths of over 185,000 young people in the long term.
Speaking at the seminar as the chief guest, Religious Affairs Secretary Munshi Alauddin Al Azad said tobacco products in Bangladesh remain significantly cheaper than essential commodities.
Referring to data from the Department of Agricultural Marketing, he noted that between 2021 and 2023, the prices of essential goods such as sugar, potatoes, flour, eggs, and soybean oil increased by 27 percent to 89 percent, whereas cigarette prices rose by only 6 percent to 15 percent.
“As a result, tobacco products have become more accessible, particularly to youth and low-income populations, leading to an alarming increase in smoking rates that poses a major threat to public health,” the secretary said, emphasising the need to increase the prices of cigarettes at a rate higher than inflation and income growth to reduce these health risks.
Special guest Nahid Nowshad Mukul, First Secretary (VAT Monitoring and IT) of the National Board of Revenue, said due to the current tobacco tax structure, the government is losing the opportunity to generate an additional Tk 44,000 crore in annual revenue.
Md Akhteruzzaman, Director General of the National Tobacco Control Cell, said Bangladesh has the highest tobacco use rate in South Asia at 35.3 percent, and nearly 200,000 people die prematurely every year from tobacco-related diseases.
In 2024, the economic and environmental damages caused by tobacco amounted to nearly Tk 87,000 crore – more than double the revenue generated from the sector, he said.
The welcome speech at the seminar was delivered by AHM Noman, founder and CEO of DORP, while the concluding remarks were delivered by Mohammad Nurul Amin.