Illegal tobacco traders active in country

18 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

An international gang of illegal tobacco traders is very active in Bangladesh and they are playing a key role in smuggling foreign cigarettes into the country. Speakers said this at a seminar on 'Combating illegal trade of tobacco products and their duty-free marketing' organised by Dhaka Ahsania Mission in association with American Cancer Society at Biam auditorium in the city yesterday, said a press release. In Bangladesh, 57,000 people die of tobacco-related diseases annually and 4.30 crore people are affected due to indirect smoking, they added. Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) President Kazi Rafiqul Alam chaired the seminar where Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister GM Kader, World Health Organisation National Professional Officer Dr M Mostofa Zaman and Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance General Secretary and Manosh President Dr Arup Ratan Chowdhury were present. GM Kader said the government would take necessary steps to stop selling duty-free cigarettes at duty-free shops. He stressed the need for launching a social movement alongside necessary laws to make a tobacco-free society. The DAM president said cigarette worth Tk 40.5 billion dollars are sold across the world annually through illegal trading. Presenting a keynote paper, DAM Coordinator Iqbal Masud said tobacco is being cultivated in the country on 122,500 acres of land while 26 lakh maunds of tobacco are produced every year.