Background
Tobacco use is the single largest cause of preventable death in Bangladesh, leading to more than 1,60,000 deaths every year. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in 2017, 35.3 percent people aged 15 years or older consume tobacco in one form or another. In 2018, the total economic cost including direct and indirect costs attributable to tobacco-related diseases amounted to 305.70 million BDT (About 3.6 million USD).
In addition to monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies and enforcing tobacco control laws, raising tobacco taxes has also been identified as a tobacco control instrument in WHO’s MPOWER policy package. Significant increases on prices and taxes on tobacco products have proved to be an efficient and cost-effective intervention for reducing tobacco use, especially for the young and the low-income people. Evidence suggests that on average, a 10% price increase on a pack of cigarettes would be expected to reduce demand for cigarettes by about 4% in high-income countries and by about 5% in low- and middle-income countries (WHO Technical Manual on Tobacco Tax Administration, 2011).
Bangladesh is the first signatory of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) since 2004. Article 6 of the WHO FCTC refers to reducing tobacco use through price and tax measures. SDG goal 3 also underlines the importance of implementing FCTC to ensure better health. As a signatory of FCTC and in order to achieve the SDG goals, Bangladesh is obliged to fulfil the obligations imposed by the treaty.
According to section 18(1) of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh “The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties, and in particular shall adopt effective measures to prevent the consumption, except for medical purposes or for such other purposes as may be prescribed by law, of alcoholic and other intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.”
In accordance with the honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s announcement at the first-ever South East Asian Speakers’ Summit on Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, the government of Bangladesh is committed to make the country free from tobacco by 2040. As part of this plan of action, the prime minister emphasized on the creation of a national advanced tobacco control policy and building a new sustainable Health Development Fund from the health development surcharge on tobacco products.
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Tobacco Tax Policy Outline (Bengali)