Dhaka: Public health experts have called for a significant revision of Bangladesh’s tobacco taxation and pricing system in the national budget for fiscal year 2026-27. They assert that a revised structure could prevent over 372,000 youths from initiating smoking and save more than 185,000 young lives in the long term.
According to United News of Bangladesh, the demand was raised at a national seminar titled ‘The Necessity of Effectively Increasing Taxes and Prices on All Tobacco Products in the Upcoming FY 2026-27 Budget for Protecting Public Health,’ organized by the Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) at the CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka. Dr. Shafiun Nahin Shimul, Director of the Institute of Health Economics at Dhaka University, presented the keynote paper, highlighting that Bangladesh’s current four-tier cigarette pricing system allows for affordability and accessibility, particularly in the low and medium tiers which account for nearly 90 percent of cigarette sales.
Shimul proposed merging the low and medium tiers for the upcoming fiscal year, suggesting minimum retail prices of Tk 100 per 10-stick pack, Tk 150 for the high tier, and Tk 200 for the premium tier. He also recommended maintaining a 67 percent supplementary duty across all tiers and imposing a specific tax of Tk 4 per pack. This strategy, he argued, could significantly reduce the number of youths starting to smoke and prevent premature deaths.
Religious Affairs Secretary Munshi Alauddin Al Azad, serving as the seminar’s chief guest, noted that tobacco products are notably cheaper than essential commodities in Bangladesh. Citing data from the Department of Agricultural Marketing, he pointed out that the price increase of essential goods far outpaced that of cigarettes between 2021 and 2023. He emphasized the need to hike cigarette prices at a rate greater than inflation and income growth to mitigate public health threats posed by smoking.
Special guest Nahid Nowshad Mukul, First Secretary (VAT Monitoring and IT) of the National Board of Revenue, highlighted that the current tobacco tax structure results in a missed opportunity for the government to generate an additional Tk 44,000 crore in annual revenue. Md Akhteruzzaman, Director General of the National Tobacco Control Cell, provided alarming statistics on tobacco use in Bangladesh, reporting that it has the highest rate in South Asia at 35.3 percent, with nearly 200,000 premature deaths annually due to tobacco-related diseases.
The economic and environmental damages from tobacco in 2024 reached nearly Tk 87,000 crore, more than double the revenue generated from the sector, Akhteruzzaman stated. The seminar commenced with a welcome speech by AHM Noman, founder and CEO of DORP, and concluded with remarks from Mohammad Nurul Amin.