Call for increase in tobacco tax

15 April 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

A unified step including increasing taxes on tobacco products should be taken to reduce their use in the country, Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to caretaker government, said yesterday. He was speaking as the chief guest at the concluding session of a workshop titled 'National Budget 2010-2011: Importance of Increasing Taxes to Control Tobacco' organised by Unnayan Shamannay at a city hotel. Prof Taiyebur Rahman, research director of Unnayan Shamannay, chaired the workshop inaugurated by M Hafiz Uddin Khan, the chairman of Transparency International Bangladesh, inaugurated the workshop. At least 57,000 people died and 3.82 lakh people became physically disable due to tobacco use in the country, and the cigarette and bidi are most used tobacco. The main cause of increasing tobacco use is its cheap price, and easy availability to consumers. About two crore people now consume tobacco in smoking form while the number of total users is three crore.