Our Correspondent :
Consumers at a press conference in Bhairab have urged the government to raise tax on low quality cigarettes to protect local bidi industry.
The press conference was held at the Bhairab Television Journalists Association in Kishoreganj District on Thursday in response to the proposed budget for fiscal year 2021-22.
General Secretary of the Bidi Consumers’ Association Md. Harun Mia read out a written statement at the press conference. President Md. Masud Mia, Raju Ahmed, Arman Khan and others were present at this time.
In a written statement, Md. Harun Mia said that bidi is a local cottage industry. The workers and consumers engaged in this industry are all from the poor class. Rich people, on the other hand, smoke cigarettes.
But in the last budget, tax on bidis was increased by Tk 4 per packet. On the other hand, bidi competitors were increased by only Tk 2 for lower level cigarettes. In the current market, the consumers of low quality cigarettes are more.
Most of these low quality cigarettes are owned by foreign multinational companies. As a result, foreign cigarette companies are easily taking over the bidi market and taking huge amount of money from this country. But the domestic labor-intensive bidi industry is being destroyed and the workers are becoming unemployed which is extremely discriminatory and frustrating.
