A REPORT published in this newspaper on Thursday said quoting a WHO study that about 57,000 people die in Bangladesh annually on account of tobacco use related diseases. It also said that the anti-tobacco activists urged the government to impose higher tax on tobacco products in the coming budget. The activists suggested 70 percent supplementary duty on all tobacco products in the upcoming national budget to discourage people from tobacco consumption. We share the concern of activists in the backdrop of observance of the World No Tobacco Day on 31st May.
It is known that tobacco is not only detrimental to human health but its economic and environmental impacts are also immense. Official data suggests that the government spends about Tk 11,000 crore per year for treating people who suffer from tobacco related diseases, while it earns only Tk 5,000 crore revenue from tax on tobacco products. Therefore, the government should seriously respond to the demand of the anti-tobacco activists to levy increased tax on tobacco products in the coming budget year.
In Bangladesh, there are some 41.1 million people who use tobacco products, including 20.9 million active smokers. Tobacco use represents a critical threat to the health and wealth of the people and, therefore, we suggest stern action to avert the ever-deepening threat.
Bangladesh is the first country to have signed the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The country enacted the Tobacco Control Act (TCA) in 2005, with the corresponding regulations being implemented in 2006. But it is appalling that surveys conducted in 2009 – the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) and the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Bangladesh Survey – have found that despite the enactment of the law, Bangladesh experienced an alarming increase in tobacco consumption from 2004 to 2009. The current tax on cigarette is composed of 2 components collected at the producer level: a value added tax (VAT) of 15% retail price and an excise tax that varies at different price ranges which is levied on cigarette packs of 10 sticks.
The injurious effect of tobacco starts from the very farming of its plants, known as green contamination, and gradually increases throughout the production process and consumption. The poor are the worst victims as it soaks up the purchasing power of the poor. As per statistics, the poor working class of the country spend about Tk. 2912 crore every year for consumption of bidi, one of the tobacco products. It is a fact that the poor consumes the low cost tobacco products, not high quantity MNC brands; but their expenses are not less than the amounts spent in smoking high priced cigarettes as a percentage of their income.
We feel that the government will heed the demand of the anti-tobacco campaigners and thus raise taxes on tobacco cultivation, production and sale. The government must do it for the sake of the greater interest of public health and money. Only statuary warning is not enough to discourage smoking, the government, concerned authorities and other stakeholders as well as the social activists need to intensify efforts to change the dismal smoking habits in Bangladesh.
