Tax hike cuts tobacco use
Say experts
The government should increase tax on tobacco and tobacco products in the budget for next fiscal (2011-12) to reduce tobacco consumption and tobacco related diseases, suggested eminent economist Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad.
He said consumption is generally related to the price of tobacco products. If the government will increase tax on tobacco and tobacco products in the upcoming budget, the price of tobacco products will increase, forcing a large number of tobacco users to quit their bad habit.
“As tobacco is highly harmful to health, I'm in favour of increasing tax on tobacco and tobacco products in the upcoming budget for 2011-12,” Dr Kholiquzzaman told the news agency.
The International Tobacco Control (ITC) survey revealed that increased prices of tobacco products through higher tax stop young people from starting tobacco use in Bangladesh. The increased tobacco taxes do not have any negative impacts on employment since the reduction in consumption will occur gradually over many years.
Taifur Rahman, Campaign for Tobacco Free-Kids (CTFK) media and advocacy coordinator in Bangladesh, said taxation on tobacco products should be done in such a way that it ensures at least a five percent increase in real price (inflation adjusted price) of tobacco products.
He suggested increasing the real supplementary duty on retail price of tobacco products to reduce consumption in Bangladesh.
“A single tax rate should be imposed for the all price segments instead of different rates for different price slabs. There should be no concession for the cheaper brands.”
According to an analysis of the CTFK, a Blooming Global Initiative to Control Tobacco Use, if the government will impose another 15 percent tax on both cigarettes and bidis in 2011-12 budget, the consumption of cigarette and bidis will decrease by 2.72 percent and 4.20 percent respectively and the government will be able to earn Tk 7,835 million additional tax revenue from tobacco.
According to a fact sheet, over 57,000 people die in Bangladesh every year from tobacco-related diseases and some 16 percent of all deaths among people aged 30 and above are attributable to tobacco use.
Bangladesh is one of the vulnerable countries across the world due to the rapid rise of its tobacco users. About 10 percent of world's tobacco users are in Bangladesh.
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