The bidi leaders and workers on Sunday placed their demands, including withdrawal of recently hiking of 4% tax on each packet of bidi and the formation of Bidi Industry Safety Law.
The other demands are to stop the distribution of duplicated bidi in the market, increase the tax on low and medium level quality-based cigarettes and stimulate the financial assistance to the bidi cultivators and traders, said a press release.
The demands were placed before the media through a human chain under the banner of Bangladesh Bidi Sramik Federation (BBSF) in front of the National Press Club on the day.
A delegation of the BBSF also submitted a memorandum with the demands to the Prime Minister through the authorities concerned.
The speakers claimed that a vested quarter has increased 4% tax in each packet from the beginning of the current fiscal year while they hiked only 2% in each packet of low and medium level cigarettes that gave ample reason to suspect a conspiracy against the bidi industry.
A good number of bidi customers have started to consume cigarettes after hiking the price of bidi from the current fiscal year 2020-21 that may occupy the bidi market by the cigarette and lead to damage to the bidi industry, they continued.
Following the hiking tax on bidi, maximum owners and producers have closed their factories, snatching the livelihoods of scores of ultra-poor bidi workers and small traders, they said.
They requested the Prime Minister to save the bidi industry by taking necessary initiatives to save the lives of workers and traders amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
BBSF central Committee President M K Banglai, its Executive President Amin Uddin BSc, General Secretary Abdur Rahman, Joint Secretary Herik Hossain, Assistant Organizing Secretary Abul Hasnat Lavlu, and Women Affairs Secretary Maya Begum, among others, spoke in the program.
