The import duty on e-cigarettes has been increased five times in the proposed budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year (FY).
Not only that, the import duty on parts of electric cigarettes witnessed an increase by 100%.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed the national budget for the upcoming 2023-24 fiscal year (FY) at the parliament on Thursday.
In his budget speech, the finance minister said that the import duty on electronic cigarettes and similar personal electric vaporizing devices will go from 5% to 25%.
Meanwhile, there was no import duty imposed on the parts of electric cigarettes and similar personal electric vaporizing devices so far.
In the FY24 budget, the finance minister proposed an import duty of 100%.
Additionally, the minister proposed adding a 150% additional duty on liquid nicotine, transdermal nicotine, etc.
E-cigarettes, other than the one-time disposable devices, mainly consist of a mod (the main machine with battery), tank and e-liquids.
The tanks contain atomizers that need to be changed at regular intervals.
Currently, all e-cigarette machines, tanks are primarily imported from China and e-liquids are mostly imported from the US and UK.