Webinar on ‘Imposing Specific Tax on Tobacco Products to Recoup the Economic Losses for Coronavirus’

A webinar on ‘Imposing Specific Tax on Tobacco Products to Recoup the Economic Losses for Coronavirus’ was held on April 27, 2020 at 11 AM on the cloud-based video conferencing tool ‘Zoom’. Bangladesh Anti-Tobacco Alliance (BATA) and Bangladesh Network for Tobacco Tax Policy (BNTTP) had jointly organized the webinar.

The renowned political leader and Parliament Member (Rajshahi-2) Mr. Fazle Hossain Badsha, Professor of BRAC Institute of Governance and Development & member of BNTTP advisory committee Dr. Nasiruddin Ahmed and BATA coordinator Saifuddin Ahmed graced the webinar with their presences along with several other distinguished participants.

Dr. Rumana Huque, Focal Person, BER, and Professor, Department of Economics, University of Dhaka initiated the discussion by delivering a presentation. In her presentation, Dr. Huque discussed the particulars of tobacco taxation in Bangladesh, the rationale behind imposing higher taxes, tobacco tax proposal for FY 2020-21 and the importance of introducing a specific tax on tobacco products. She mostly focused on how specific tax on tobacco products can substantially help the government to recover from the economic losses during this Coronavirus pandemic.

Syed Mahbubul Alam, Technical Advisor of The Union moderated the webinar.

A total of 53 participants joined the webinar from different parts of the country, 14 districts to be precise. The participants belonged to 26 organizations in total. As yet, the news of this webinar has been published in 10 news media, including 2 in print and 8 online. The webinar ended with a promise to work harder to persuade the government into imposing specific tax on tobacco products to cope with these trying times.