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Editorial

Impose high tax on tobacco products

Devise pragmatic steps to limit tobacco production and consumption


Bangladeshpost
Published : 20 Dec 2020 09:36 PM | Updated : 21 Dec 2020 01:41 AM

Experts have long been crying hoarse to increase the existing excise taxes on all tobacco products to save lives as well as collect more revenue. Tobacconomics, a US-based research initiative has recently said that the existing tobacco prices and tax structure in Bangladesh are far below the standard of international best practice.

There is no denying that the economic activities generated from the production and consumption of tobacco provides economic stimulus at the same time it is also true that tobacco smoking is the cause of many avoidable diseases and premature deaths in Bangladesh. It poses enormous health-related threats to the consumers and the society at large.


Prices of tobacco products should be increased through 

implementing effective tobacco tax measures

It needs no emphasising that the financial loss in Bangladesh due to tobacco-related diseases and premature deaths is increasing day by day. Reportedly, only the consumption of tobacco products is eating up more than Tk 30,500 crore annually, which is 1.4 per cent of GDP. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tobacco consumption, in any form, kills more than 160,000 people on average every year, amounting to around 19 per cent of all deaths in Bangladesh. Study also assesses that children are the worst victims of second-hand smoking exposure. More than two crore children of the country are victims of passive smoking. It is time to devise pragmatic steps to limit tobacco production and consumption. Increase in tobacco taxes will unarguably be the most effective means of reducing the consumption of tobacco. If prices of tobacco products go out of people’s purchasing capacity, the consumption will gradually reduce.

Experts assert that if the existing taxes are revised and imposed properly, the government could earn an additional Tk 10,000 crore in revenue from the sector. Therefore, necessary steps should be taken to impose more taxes on the tobacco producing companies. Last but not the least, we need to increase funds for tobacco-related disease prevention programmes to assist people who want to quit smoking.