Anti-tobacco platforms today demanded the government should increase the tax for tobacco products in the proposed national budget for the fiscal 2018-19.

They also demanded the restructuring of the four-level price slab for cigarettes into two levels.   

The proposed tax structure for tobacco products is to protect tobacco businesses, Nadira Kiron, co-convenor of Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) said at press briefing organised by several anti-tobacco organisations  at National Press Club in Dhaka.

By keeping the value slabs of cigarettes at four levels, the price and tax of high-priced cigarettes unchanged for three consecutive fiscal years, the government is facilitating the business expansion of the multinational tobacco companies, she alleged.  

The anti-tobacco platforms including Progga, ATMA, National Heart Foundation, National Anti-Tobacco Platform and others at the press briefing also proposed to separately impose a part of the supplementary duty as specific tax on tobacco. 

Their recommendations include:

1. Breaking the four-segment price slabs for cigarettes into just two segments of high and low. Fixing the price of 10 sticks of low segment cigarettes at minimum Tk 50 with a 60% supplementary duty  and the price of 10 sticks of high segment cigarettes at minimum TK 100 with a 65% supplementary duty. And for all cases, slapping a Tk 5 specific tax on every 10 sticks of cigarettes.

2.  Abolishing the filter and non-filter differentiation for Bidi and fixing the price of 30 sticks at minimum Tk 30 with a 45% supplementary duty and Tk 6 specific tax.

3. Slapping 45% supplementary duty instead of 65%  and Tk 10 specific tax for each 10 grammes of smoke free tobacco products.

4. Re-imposing the 25% tax on exporting processed and unprocessed tobacco products and a 10% supplementary duty at local level to discourage tobacco cultivation.