No alternative to strong law, tax measures to curb tobacco use: Experts

Only strong tobacco tax measures and a stringent tobacco control law can curb the massive death toll and other losses caused by tobacco use, experts said at a meeting of Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) members, held at the BMA Bhaban in Dhaka today.

Increasing tobacco tax is globally recognised as an effective tool to discourage tobacco use but the tobacco tax structure of Bangladesh is faulty which has rendered tobacco products quite cheap and affordable in the country.

The current structure has been encouraging tobacco use, particularly among the youth and the poor, thus increasing the deaths and illnesses caused by tobacco, said a press release. 

The Tobacconomics Cigarette Tax Score Card published in 2024 by the Bloomberg School of Public Health of Johns Hopkins University has also revealed a frustrating picture of Bangladesh, the experts said. The scorecard is based on four factors: cigarette price, change in affordability, tax structure, and tax share of retail price. Bangladesh's overall score is only 1.13 out of 5, which was 2.38 earlier.

While Bangladesh has scored poorly in all four factors, the nil score in the 'affordability' factor slashed the total country score in half, compared with the previous score, added the release. 

The way ahead for Bangladesh to improve its country score remains in increasing prices of cigarettes in accordance with inflation and increase in per capita income, hiking supplementary duty on retail prices of low-tier cigarettes to 70%, and introducing uniform specific or mixed (specific and ad-valorem) tax method to replace the existing multi-tiered ad-valorem tobacco tax method.

Discussants also put forth a number of recommendations, including eliminating provision for designated smoking areas (DSAs) in all public places and public transport, banning display of tobacco packs at points-of-sale, banning corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs of tobacco companies. 

During the meeting, participated by 53 members of ATMA, the co-convener, Mizan Chowdhury and Hasan Shahriar of PROGGA (ATMA Secretariat) highlighted recent activities and the way forward for the organisation, according to the press release.

Distinguished speakers of the event included  Sajjadur Rahman, deputy editor, The Business Standard; Salma Yasmin Rita, senior news editor, Bangla Vision; Md Mostafizur Rahman, Bangladesh lead policy adviser, Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids (CTFK); Mortuza Haider Liton, convener, ATMA; Nadira Kiron, co-convener, ATMA; and ABM Zubair, member-secretary, ATMA.