Economists and anti-tobacco campaigners, at a press conference on Saturday, said that prices of tobacco products turned cheaper than the daily essentials in the country though tobacco was harmful for health.
PROGGA and Anti-Tobacco media alliance organised the event at the national press club where speakers demanded to increase taxes on tobacco products to reduce their use for safeguarding public health, said a press release.
Economist and convener of the National Anti-Tobacco Platform Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said that tobacco products were becoming cheaper over the time compared to the prices of essential commodities, which was an ominous sign for public health.
鈥楥onsidering hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, diseases, detrimental effects on environment and ecosystem, all caused by tobacco, the upcoming national budget must effectively hike the prices of tobacco products to bring it beyond the purchasing power of the people,鈥� he suggested.
Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies research director Mahfuz Kabir said that 75 per cent of total cigarette users belong to the low tier.
鈥楬owever, the supplementary duty on this tier stands at only 58 per cent. Raising the SD to 63 per cent will certainly reduce the prevalence of cigarette use and raise revenue inflow for the government,鈥� he added.
Department of agricultural marketing analysed the average retail prices of essential commodities in seven metropolitan cities 鈥� Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, and Rangpur 鈥� between July 2021 and July 2023.
The analysis showed that price of loose sugar had an 89 per cent hike in this period.
The hike was 87 per cent for potatoes, 75 per cent for loose flour, 47 per cent for Pangas fish, 43 per cent for eggs, 34 per cent for soybean oil, 30 per cent for powdered milk, and 27 per cent for broiler chicken.
However, during this timeframe, the hike in the prices of different tiers of cigarettes ranged between 6-15 per cent only.
Among others, Md Abdus Salam, Programme鈥檚 manager for campaign for tobacco-free kids, Mortuza Haider Liton, convener, ATMA and ABM Zubair, executive director, PROGGA spoke.
Some 37.8 million adults in Bangladesh use tobacco products that claim 1,61,000 lives every year in the country.
