Gulam Rabbani :
The proposed amendment of the Tobacco Control Act may bring hardship to the retailers as it suggested for imposing a condition of taking license for selling cigarette and banning sale of single stick of bidi or cigarette in the market.
As per the conditions one seller has to have a holding number to get a cigarette selling license. However, most of the shops of the retailers, percentage may be up to 70 per cent according to the stakeholders, are unstructured and don’t have any holding number. Collection of license will be an extra burden for them and they may face harassment from the concerned officials to get it.
Sources said there are at least 1.5 million retailers who earn their livelihood through selling cigarette and bidi across the country. Most of them are poor in economic condition.
The proposed amendment also suggested to add a clause banning sale of cigarette by the hawkers which is also a contrary step to the enriching the informal economy of the government. This will also affect the daily life of the retailers and create the possibility of harassment of cigarette sellers and buyers at the field level.
It also suggested abolishing ‘designated smoking area (DSA)’ in different hotels and public places and to include tea shops and coffee houses as the public place.
The new amendment suggests providing punishment under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) for disobeying the law. However, tobacco is a legal product in our country. As a result, anyone can get opportunity to file a case on an intention of harasses someone related to the tobacco business.
It also included the e-cigarette or electronic nicotine delivery system as tobacco product.
Hossain Ali Khondokar, Additional Secretary of the Health Services Division of the Ministry of Health who is also the coordinator of the National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC), said, “Tobacco is a harmful item to human health. Hence, laws are being tightened to control it. Public opinion on the proposed amendments has already been taken. After completing a few more steps it will be placed to the cabinet for approval.”
Although the proposed amendments will impose strictures on retailers but is necessary in the interest of public health, opined this official.
Bangladesh was the first country to sign the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2003. In the light of the FCTC, Bangladesh enacted a law calling ‘Smoking and Tobacco Products Usage (Control) Act, 2005’.
In 2013, the law was amended to make it up-to-date. Smoking had been banned in public places and on public transports through the amendments. Advertising of tobacco products was prohibited and punishment for violating the law was tightened in the amended law.
Due to various measures, including the amendment of the concerned law, taken by the government to control tobacco, the use of tobacco in Bangladesh has been reduced to a significant rate as compared with the past years.
According to the World Bank data, the tobacco usage rate among the adults was 44 per cent in Bangladesh in 2010, which had come down to 34.7 per cent in the 2020 survey.
The Tobacco Control Act in Bangladesh was amended about nine years ago and its benefits were seen in the recent surveys, which showed that tobacco use had been reduced significantly compared to 2010.
In order to maintain this reducing continuity and on the demand of the various stakeholders, an initiative has been taken to amend the law. Public opinion was already taken over the proposed amendment of the law. Now it will be placed in a Cabinet meeting for approval and then to follow the further procedure.
The proposed amendment raised a controversy as the working committee formed for the amendment was made by 19 persons where most of the members were included from the NGO officials, and any one from the concerned stakeholders was not included.
