Speakers at a discussion here on Sunday suggested effective reform of the tobacco tax structure in the upcoming national budget for the sake of improve public health and thus increasing government revenue.
They said the government could generate nearly BDT 44,000 crore in additional revenue from the cigarette sector alone in a fiscal year and reduce the number of premature deaths as the use of tobacco caused some 400,000 premature deaths every year in the country.
PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) jointly arranged the discussion titled “Budget 2026–27: Advancing Public Health and Increasing Tobacco Revenue,” at the National Press Club in the city.
Economists, physicians, and other experts proposed reducing the number of cigarette price tiers, introducing a specific tax system, and increasing the prices of all tobacco products.
The speakers recommended that the government introduce uniform price and taxes for both filtered and non-filtered bidi and the retail price for 20 sticks of bidi should be BDT 30, followed by a 50 percent SD. For smokeless tobacco, the retail price for 10 grams of jarda and gul should be BDT 60 and BDT 30 respectively, followed by 60 percent SD.
They also suggest retaining a15 percent VAT on the retail prices of all tobacco products and continuing the existing 1 percent health development surcharge (HDS).
Other recommendations placed by them are; merging the low and medium cigarette tiers and setting the retail price at BDT 100 per pack of 10 sticks; setting the high-tier price at BDT 150 and the premium-tier price at BDT 200 or above; retaining the existing 67 percent supplementary duty (SD) on all cigarette tiers; and introducing a specific tax of BDT 4 per 10 sticks.
“The price difference between the low and medium tiers is very small. Currently, consumers of the low and medium tiers constitute 90 percent of all cigarette users. Merging these two tiers into one and setting the price of the merged tier at BDT 100 for 10 sticks can increase government revenue and particularly discourage cigarette use among the poor and the youth,” said Dr Mahfuz Kabir, Research Director of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS).
Dr. Rumana Huque, Professor of the Department of Economics at University of Dhaka, said tobacco products are cheaper than essential commodities in Bangladesh, which poses a major threat to public health. “Effective measures must be taken to make tobacco products unaffordable to the people,” she said.
Dr. Syed Abdul Hamid, Professor at the Institute of Health Economics of University of Dhaka, said the introduction of a specific tax system is a highly effective measure for simplifying tax collection.
Public health expert Dr. Lenin Choudhury urged the policymakers to implement all the prices and tax related proposals presented in the event so that it can discourage tobacco use.
Besides, Zahirul Alam, Executive Director of Channel24, Dr Abu Jamil Faisel, President, Public Health Association of Bangladesh, Mortuza Haider Liton, Convener, ATMA, and ABM Zubair, Executive Director, PROGGA, among others, also spoke on the occasion.