NBR-Atma Pre-Budget Talks: Increase in Cigarette Prices Tk 44,000 Crore Additional Revenue

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The Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (Atma) has proposed fixing the price of cigarettes at Tk 100 per 10 cigarettes for the low and middle tiers, Tk 150 for the high tier and Tk 200 for the premium. With this, adding a specific duty of 4 rupees per packet can bring additional revenue of about 44 thousand crore rupees compared to the current financial year and it is said that about four lakh premature deaths can be prevented in the long term.

This reform proposal was presented by the Antitobacco Media Alliance (Atma) in the pre-budget discussion at the conference room of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Tuesday. This information was informed in a circular of anti-tobacco organization Pragya.

Chairman of NBR in the meeting. Abdur Rahman Khan said, increasing taxes and prices reduces the consumption of cigarettes – this has been proven, so it will be considered in the future.

The discussion also informed that tobacco products are becoming relatively cheaper due to lack of effective price hike. Currently, 35.3 percent of adults in the country use tobacco and nearly 200,000 people die of it every year.

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It was informed in the discussion meeting that due to lack of effective price increase, the real price of cigarettes and other tobacco products is decreasing and becoming cheaper than regular products. According to the 2025 data of the World Health Organization, Bangladesh ranks below Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and India in terms of the price of the most sold cigarettes. To effectively increase the price of tobacco products, 69 countries around the world, including India, Thailand, Turkey, have introduced specific taxes along with Advelrem system. Specific taxes are very effective in raising the minimum price of tobacco products and tax collection in this manner is relatively easy.

Kawsar Rahman, Chief Reporter of Dainik Janakantha, Head of Online (Bangla) of Daily Times of Bangladesh took part in the pre-budget discussion as Atma’s representative. Monir Hossain, Business Incharge of Bangla Tribune. Shafiqul Islam, Convenor of ‘Atma’ Mortuza Haider and Co-Convenors Nadira Kiran and Mizan Chowdhury.