'Raise tax on tobacco products'

21 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Nirapad Development Foundation and Green Mind Society stage a demonstration in front of the National Press Club in the city yesterday urging the government to raise tax on tobacco products.Photo: STAR

Speakers at a programme yesterday called on the government to raise tax on tobacco products and use this money to rehabilitate bidi workers through providing alternative jobs to them, as they face serious health hazards at their bidi factories. They said the bidi workers are suffering from various diseases like cancer and tuberculosis. The government should impose high tax on tobacco and provide alternative jobs for bidi workers. They said around 57,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases a year and 3,82,000 people become paralysed due to tobacco use. About Tk 11,000 crore are spent on tobacco-related diseases a year. The speakers said this at a token sit-in programme organised by the Nirapad Development Foundation (NDF) and Green Mind Society in front of the National Press Club yesterday, said a press release. NDF chairman Ibnul Syed Rana, Green Mind president Amir Hossain, Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa) joint secretary Shahjahan Mridha Benu and Mihir Biswas, among others, were present at the programme.