A 3-day online training session was held for the 8th cohort on ‘Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxation: Public Health Perspective’ from 23rd to 25th April 2022 on the online meeting platform ‘Zoom’. The training program was jointly organized by BER and BNTTP with technical and financial assistance from Bloomberg Philanthropies and The Union.
The opening session was inaugurated by SM Abdullah, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, and Adv. Syed Mahbubul Alam, Technical Coordinator, The Union. Both of the speakers talked about the importance of taxation in the field of tobacco control and hoped that the participants will have a great learning opportunity through this training.
On the first day of the training, SM Abdullah conducted a session on the Economics of Tobacco, and Dr. Nasiruddin Ahmed, Ex-Chairman, NBR conducted a session on Tobacco Control: Country Experiences. The training on the 2nd day started with the session by Aminur Rahman, Ex-member, NBR. His session was about tax administration with a focus on tobacco tax. Due to some unavoidable circumstances, the resource person for the 2nd session, Syed Mahfuzul Haq could not manage to attend the training. As an alternative resource person, Hamidul Hillol, Project Manager, BER conducted this session on tobacco tax theory and basic concepts. On the 3rd and last day of the training, the 1st session was conducted by Sushanta Sinha, Special Correspondent, Ekattor TV. The topic of his session was the unethical interference of the tobacco industry. The 2nd session on the proposed ‘Tobacco Tax Proposal’ was conducted by Hamidul Hillol.
Dr. Rumana Haque, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka presented her remarks at the closing ceremony of the online training. She hoped that the participants would utilize the learning and knowledge gathered from this training session later on in their workplace as well as in the fight against the harmful use of tobacco.
A total of 19 participants participated and successfully completed the training. The training, funded by the international development organization, The Union, was attended by media workers, development workers, tobacco control workers, and university students. They also pledged to work together to increase taxes on tobacco and tobacco products to improve public health.