A group of anti-smoking campaigners urged the National Board of Revenue to increase tax on all tobacco products in the next national budget to discourage consumption of them which put human health in danger.
They made this call at a human chain in Dhaka yesterday, arguing that the consumption of tobacco products like cigarette, gul, bidi, jorda still continues to rise in the country as they are available at cheap prices.
The Human Resources and Health Foundation and the Citizens Rights Movement jointly organised the event in front of NBR premises.
Later, the group placed a memorandum to the NBR chairman MdGhulam Hossain. The NBR member (VAT and budget) Jahangir Hossain received the memorandum on behalf of the chairman.
The chairman of Human Resources and Health Foundation Md Shahjahan, secretary of Citizens Rights Movement Tushar Rehman, vice chairman of Human Resources and Health Foundation MM Rahman and its advisor Abu Bakar Siddique, among others, participated in the human chain.
The rise of tobacco consumption among the people in Bangladesh is helping both local and foreign companies further expand their business, threatening a long-term impact on country’s human health, the speakers said.
“Although NBR has some on-going anti-tobacco campaigns, the country still continues to see significant increase in tobacco consumption,”said Md Shahjahan.
According to him, the availability of cheap tobacco products like bidi, cigarette, jorda and gul which constitute 60% of whole tobacco market in the country is contributing to this rise of consumption.
He continued, “Although we see essentials’ prices spiraling for last few years, the price of cheap brands’ cigarette remain stable at as low as Tk1.50 per stick.”
The low-income people who are huge in number in Bangladesh can easily continue the consumption of tobacco, keeping the number of smokers still high.
“If NBR increases tax on all kinds of tobacco products, the people will feel discouraged to consume them,” said Tushar Rehman.
Imposing higher tax will not only help to keep people away from these anti-health items but also increase revenue income of the government, he added.
They said that the consumption of tobacco products is increasing significantly which, in terms is benefitting the local and international companies to produce low price tobacco products and make this available in the country.
Human Resources & Health Foundation vice chairman M. M. Rahman and advisor to the organization Abu Bakar Siddique were present among others at the programme.
