Speakers at the closing ceremony of a training course said that specific taxation on tobacco products and formulation of a national tobacco tax policy is essential aiming to reduce the availability and use of tobacco. The specific taxation system is universally accepted to achieve the goal, they added.
Bureau of Economic Research (BER) of Dhaka University and Bangladesh Network for Tobacco Tax Policy (BNTTP) jointly arranged the online training titled ‘Economics of Tobacco Taxation: Public Health Perspective’. Funded by The Union, the training course began on December 31 and ended on Monday (January 2).
Dr Rumana Huque, a professor of DU’s Economics dept; inaugurated the training course; while Dr Nasir Uddin Ahmed, ex-NBR chairman; Prof Dr Golam Mohiuddin Faruk, project director of Bangladesh Cancer Society; Advocate Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin, technical adviser of The Union; Nazmul Hossain, an assistant professor of DU’s Economics dept; Sushanta K Sinha, special correspondent of Ekattar TV; and Hamidul Islam Hillol, project manager of BER; took part in discussion at various sessions of the training course.
Dr Nasir Uddin Ahmed said that specific taxation is being done instead of ad-valorem taxation system all over the world. The government is benefiting from this and the use of tobacco is also decreasing. “We also expect that the NBR will introduce a specific tobacco taxation system for tobacco as an initial step to build a tobacco-free Bangladesh as per the announcement of the Prime Minister,” he added.
In the concluding speech at the event, Syed Mahbubul Alam Tahin said that the tobacco industry resorted to various tactics to obstruct the overall tobacco control program, including increasing the price and tax of tobacco products.
