Staff Reporter :
The bidi leaders and workers have placed five points demand, including withdrawal of recently hiking of 4 percent tax on each packet of bidi and newly formation of ‘bidi industry safety law’.
The other demands are shut the duplicated bidi in the market, increasing the tax on low and medium level quality based cigarettes and stimulating the financial assistance to the bidi cultivators and traders.
The demands were placed before the journalists from a human chain under the banner of Bangladesh Bidi Sramik Federation (BBSF) in front the National Press Club on Sunday morning.
A delegation of the BBSF also submitted a memorandum with the demands to the Prime Minister through the authorities concerned, said a press release.
The speakers claimed that a vested quarter have increased 4 percent tax in each packet from the beginning of the current fiscal year while they hiked only two percent in each packet of low and medium level cigarettes that clear the conspiracy against the bidi industry.
A good number of bidi customers have started to consume cigarette after hiking the price of bidi from the current fiscal year 2020-21 that may occupy the bidi market by the cigarette and lead to damage the bidi industry, they continued.
Following the hiking tax on bidi, maximum owners and producers have closed their factories that snatching the livelihood of several lakh ultra-poor bidi workers and small traders, they said.
They requested the Prime Minister to save the bidi industry by taking necessary initiatives to save the lives of workers and traders amid the cornona pandemic.
BBSF central Committee President M K Banglai, its Executive President Amin Uddin BSc, General Secretary Abdur Rahman, Joint Secretary Herik Hossain, Assistant Organizing Secretary Abul Hasnat Lavlu, and Women Affairs Secretary Maya Begum, among others, spoke in the program.
The bidi leaders and workers have placed five points demand, including withdrawal of recently hiking of 4 percent tax on each packet of bidi and newly formation of ‘bidi industry safety law’.
The other demands are shut the duplicated bidi in the market, increasing the tax on low and medium level quality based cigarettes and stimulating the financial assistance to the bidi cultivators and traders.
The demands were placed before the journalists from a human chain under the banner of Bangladesh Bidi Sramik Federation (BBSF) in front the National Press Club on Sunday morning.
A delegation of the BBSF also submitted a memorandum with the demands to the Prime Minister through the authorities concerned, said a press release.
The speakers claimed that a vested quarter have increased 4 percent tax in each packet from the beginning of the current fiscal year while they hiked only two percent in each packet of low and medium level cigarettes that clear the conspiracy against the bidi industry.
A good number of bidi customers have started to consume cigarette after hiking the price of bidi from the current fiscal year 2020-21 that may occupy the bidi market by the cigarette and lead to damage the bidi industry, they continued.
Following the hiking tax on bidi, maximum owners and producers have closed their factories that snatching the livelihood of several lakh ultra-poor bidi workers and small traders, they said.
They requested the Prime Minister to save the bidi industry by taking necessary initiatives to save the lives of workers and traders amid the cornona pandemic.
BBSF central Committee President M K Banglai, its Executive President Amin Uddin BSc, General Secretary Abdur Rahman, Joint Secretary Herik Hossain, Assistant Organizing Secretary Abul Hasnat Lavlu, and Women Affairs Secretary Maya Begum, among others, spoke in the program.
