Experts urge merger of low and medium cigarette tiers to curb tobacco use, boost revenue

Anti-tobacco experts and campaigners have urged the government to merge the low and medium tiers of cigarettes in the final budget for FY2025–26, warning that the current structure—with unchanged prices and tax rates—will make tobacco products more affordable and lead to increased tobacco use, related deaths, and significant revenue loss.

The call came during a post-budget press conference organised today (19 June) by PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) and the Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA).

During the event, speakers criticised the proposed budget for failing to adopt necessary reforms in tobacco taxation, especially the merging of the two lowest cigarette tiers, a step they say is vital to discourage switching between cheaper brands and encourage cessation.

Citing provisional data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), PROGGA and ATMA noted that per capita income has increased by approximately 11.5% over the past year, while tobacco prices remain unchanged.

This increases the affordability of tobacco products and poses greater health risks—particularly among youth and low-income groups, speakers said.

Experts also expressed concern that the prices of bidis have remained unchanged for the sixth consecutive year, with supplementary duty on bidis unchanged for the tenth straight year.

This would make the bidi business more profitable and affordable, with a disproportionately negative impact on women and the poor, who are the main consumers of smokeless tobacco such as jarda and gul—products whose tax rates also remain unchanged, they said.

Syed Yusuf Saadat, research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), stressed the inefficiency of the current four-tier pricing system for cigarettes.

"Since the prices of the low and medium tiers are very close, consumers can easily switch between them, undermining the effectiveness of tax measures. The government should reduce the tiers to three and merge the low and medium ones," he said.

During the event, anti-tobacco advocates presented a set of proposals for the final budget, which include merger of the low and medium tiers of cigarettes and setting the retail price at Tk90 for 10 sticks, maintaining the current retail price of Tk140 for high-tier cigarettes, increasing the retail price of premium cigarettes to Tk190 per 10 sticks and retaining the existing 67% supplementary duty (SD) on all cigarette tiers.

Speakers added that if these proposals are implemented, the government could earn an additional Tk20,000 crore in revenue, helping it meet fiscal targets while also protecting public health.

They further said that such reforms could prevent up to 1.7 million premature deaths, including those of nearly 900,000 youths.

Participants at the press conference included Mortuza Haider Liton, convener of ATMA, Mizan Chowdhury, co-Convener of ATMA, ABM Zubair, executive director of PROGGA and other representatives of anti-tobacco organisations.

The session was hosted by Nadira Kiron, co-convener of ATMA, with Hasan Shahriar, head of programs at PROGGA, presenting the budget analysis and policy demands.