Business Desk :
Tobacco cultivators and traderson Mondayorganized a press conference at the National Press Clubto press home their 10-point demand that includes policy favors to save tobacco farmersand reducing taxes on Bidi for the protection of the local industry, says a press release.
Masum Fakir, General Secretary of Rangpur Tobacco Farmers and Trade Association, read out a written statement at the press conference while Jahangir Alam Tota presided over the program. Organization’s Lalmonirhat district President Mujibur Rahman and General Secretary Md Golam Faruque, Rangpur district’s President Mahbub Alam, General Secretary Mizanur Rahman Mizan and Organizing Secretary Nurul Islam Lavlu, Nilphamari district chapter’s President Hamidul Haque, farmer leader Ataur Rahman and AH Mannan Sundar were present at the conference. Hundreds of the tobacco farmers and traders also joined the program.
In the statement, the tobacco farmers and traders demanded (1) the duty imposed on bidi be reduced following the example of India for the sake of the domestic industry, (2) Bidi’s price will have to be reduced to Tk 10from Tk 15, (3)laws for the protection of local industry,(4) advance taxes on bidi should be revoked,(5) the Bidi industry of Bangladesh must be declared as ‘cottage industry’ following Bangabandhu’s policy, (6) lower and medium-level cigarettes must be taxed equally, (7) supplementary dutieson the premium brand cigarettes, (8) government bureaucrats cannotjoin multinational companies, (9) additional tax has to be imposed on the cigarettes of foreign multinational companiesto protect domestic industry and (10) favorable government policies to protect tobacco farmers.
