Bangladesh Tobacco Tax Proposal 2020-21

The most effective way to reduce tobacco use is to raise the prices of tobacco products through tax increases that lower their affordability. Higher prices discourage youth from initiating tobacco use and encourage current users to quit.

If the Government of Bangladesh reforms the current tobacco tax system following the recommendations for FY 2020-2021 proposed in Table 1 to 3 below, it would:

• Encourage nearly 2 million current adult smokers to quit (1 million cigarette smokers & 1 million biri smokers);
• Reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking from around 13.6% to approximately 11.9%, and the prevalence of biri smoking from 5.0% to 3.3%, putting Bangladesh on track towards a tobacco-free 2040;
• Reduce premature deaths by 600,000 among current smokers in the long term (350,000 cigarette smokers and 290,000 biri smokers);
• Generate between BDT 41 billion and BDT 98 billion in additional tax revenues from Supplementary Duty and VAT on top of the collection for FY 2019-2020, that is an increase by at least 14% of current tax revenue from cigarettes and biris in the first year.

To Read or download the Bangladesh Tobacco Tax Proposal 2018-19, Please click the download option.

Bangladesh Tobacco Tax Proposal 2020-21