FY23 budget will make tobacco products more affordable: activists

The budget will hike health expenditure and deprive the government of additional revenue, the Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance and PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), said in a joint statement.

The draft budget failed to take into account any of the demands raised by anti-tobacco organisations and is in “grave” conflict with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s vision for a tobacco-free Bangladesh, the organisations said.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Thursday proposed raising the price for 10 sticks of low-tier cigarettes by only Tk 1, setting the price at Tk 40.

“It shows only a 2.56 percent increase in this tier. Such an increase is negligible considering the fact that the National Per Capita Income (Nominal) has increased by nearly 10 percent,” ATMA and PROGGA said.

“As a result of this budgetary measure, the use of cheap cigarettes will increase among the poor and the youth. It should be noted that 75 percent of all cigarette smokers are users of low-tier products, most of who belong to the aforementioned demographic categories.”

The price of 10 sticks of medium-tier cigarettes has been increased to Tk 65 from Tk 63, which shows a 3.17 percent increase. In the high and the premier tiers, the prices have been increased from Tk 102 to Tk 111 (8.82 percent hike) and from Tk 135 to Tk 142 (5.18 percent hike) respectively.

When compared to the 10 percent increase in the National Per Capita Income (Nominal), it shows that such a “negligible” increase will make all sorts of brands “more affordable and encourage more and more people to get hooked on this deadly addiction”, the statement said.

On the other hand, ignoring the anti-tobacco organisations’ demand for the introduction of specific supplementary duty will complicate revenue collection and allow tobacco companies to benefit from rampant tax evasion and others, the campaigners said.

The prices of and taxes on bidi, jarda, and gul have been kept unchanged which is “frustrating”, considering the repercussion of these deadly products on public health, they said.

The low-income people constitute the majority of bidi users. Besides them, more than 50 percent of all adult tobacco users in Bangladesh tend to use smokeless tobacco products, with the majority of them being the poor and the women.

“If we take the increase in Per Capita Income (Nominal) into account, these products have just become even cheaper and more affordable. As a result, the poor demographic, particularly, the women, will be encouraged to use these harmful products and experience the heightened health risks associated with these products,” the statement said.

PROGGA chief ABM Zubair said the prices of cheap cigarettes have remained almost

unchanged, while it also lacks any directive with regard to introducing specific supplementary duty, a long-time demand of anti-tobacco activists.

“We demand that the government introduce specific supplementary duty and hike prices to bring tobacco products beyond the affordability of the masses,” he said.