Webinar on ‘Outline of the National Tobacco Tax Policy’

A webinar was jointly organized by the Bureau of Economic Research (BER), University of Dhaka, and Bangladesh Network for Tobacco tax Policy (BNTTP) on the outline of the ‘National Tobacco Policy’ drafted by the BER. The webinar was held on Saturday, 18 June 2022 at 4 PM and was conducted through the online meeting platform ‘Zoom’.

Tobacco Control and Information Rights Activist Hamidul Islam Hillol presented the keynote address at the webinar. He briefly discussed the contents and the regulations of the draft Tobacco Tax Policy. AKM Maqsood, Executive Director, Gram Bangla Development Committee, Palash Chandra Banik, Assistant Professor, Department of Non-communicable Diseases, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, and Salma Parveen, Project Coordinator, MANAS were present as guest discussants in the webinar. The webinar was moderated by Ibrahim Khalil, Project Officer, BER.

The guest discussants along with the participants expressed their opinion about tax measures for tobacco control and also set forth some suggestions that can be included in the policy. They all reiterated their support for working to implement a comprehensive and effective national tobacco tax policy as was dictated by the Honorable Prime Minister to make Bangladesh tobacco-free by 2040.

The event was attended by 27 people which included students, officials, and journalists, of various organizations working on tobacco control in Bangladesh.