Kamruzzaman Bablu :
Not increasing of prices of the low-tier cigarettes is impacting revenue income and the government’s revenue collection it is also taking a big hit from this sector, said insider.
According to The National Board of Revenue (NBR) that the revenue earned in the FY2020-21 from the cigarette sector was nearly Tk28,500crore, which in FY2021-22 is set to reach Tk29,700crore, a growth of only 4%. This is a significant decrease from a regular 10% or 15% growth previously.
In FY2019-20, a 10-stick packet of the low-tier cigarettes cost Tk37, which in FY2021-22 became Tk39. The total increase in price in the last three financial years has been only Tk2. The number of consumers also increased for this segment.
Industry observers said that nearly 75% of the country’s cigarette market is dominated by low-tier products, which are low-cost and consumed by people from the lower income groups. The prices for the lower-tier cigarettes have increased only by Tk2 in the last three financial years, raising the risk of making these more increasingly more affordable.
Industry observers also said that the price for low-tier cigarettes should increase at least by Tk3-6 in order to both help and prevent the loss of revenue and safeguard public health.
The chairman of the National Board of Revenue recently commented that rising of cigarette prices does not lower the number of smokers. But data show that the total volume in the cigarette sector has been in decline for the last five years. Observers think that keeping the low-tier cigarettes at a constant low price is risking public health.
“To reduce public health risk, prices of low-tier cigarettes should be raised, so that smokers are discouraged from smoking more,” Dr. Md. Farid Uddin, Assistant Professor of the Economics Department of Rajshahi University told The New Nation recently.
Typically consumed only by people of lower-income and the poor, more affordable cigarettes puts this segment of the society at higher health risk.
