The use of tobacco products, including cigarette, bidi, zarda and gul, are going to be costlier from the next fiscal (fiscal 2018-19) as the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is shifting to a uniform tax rate irrespective of prices.
“Maintaining harmony with the anti-smoking state policies of the states around the world, decreasing use of tobacco, reducing health risk and increasing revenue collection are the big challenges of this sector,” Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said while placing the national budget for fiscal 2018-19 at Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday.
Aiming to face this challenge, he said, the NBR reduces price levels for shifting to a uniform tax rate irrespective of prices and the government is gradually moving to this goal.
Muhith proposed fixing the price of the low segment for every 10 sticks of cigarette at Tk 32 and above while increasing the supplementary duty rate to 55 per cent.
He also proposed increasing the price of the medium segment for every 10 sticks of cigarette at Tk 48 and the supplementary duty rate to 65 per cent.
At the same time, the Finance Minister proposed increasing the price of the high segment for every 10 sticks of cigarette at Tk 75 and Tk 101 while keeping the supplementary duty rate to existing 65 per cent. “Our goal is to gradually fix the price and supplementary duty rate in two slabs,” he said.
Observing that bidi is more harmful than cigarette, Muhith said last year the government decided to abolish bidi production within 2/3 years.
Reiterating the Prime Minister’s decision to make Bangladesh a tobacco-free country by 2041, he said in line with this commitment, the government has decided to abolish bidi production by 2030 and cigarette production by 2040.
“So, we will not increase the price of bidi this year. However, price of 20 sticks of filter bidi will be fixed at Tk 15 from existing Tk 12,” he said.
To reduce the consumption of smokeless tobacco products like zarda and gul, Muhith recommended fixing the price of Zarda and Gul based on its weight, reports BSS.
“Here, I am proposing to fix price of 10 grams of Zarda and Gul at Tk 25 for next year,” he added.
