A handful of lawmakers are creating pressure on the National Board of Revenue to reduce duty imposed on bidi, indigenous substitute of cigarette, in the upcoming budget
of FY 2013-2014, alleged NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain.
‘We are under pressure as more than 70 Membersof Parliament sent recommendations to the NBR to reduce duty on bidi,’ said Ghulam at a pre-budget discussion with the Bangladesh Bidi Shilpa Malik Samity at NBR headquarters in the capital on Monday.
‘They are requesting the NBR not to do anything that hampers the sector as it will create negative impact on their vote bank in the next general election,’ he said.
But the revenue board will not do anything that encourages the consumption of bidi and cigarette as both are the severely harmful to human health, he said.
If necessary, the duty on both the items will be increased in the upcoming budget, Ghulam said adding the government had to spend additional Tk 38,000 crore in health sector because of tobacco consumption in the country.
‘So, there is no reason to provide the sector with any tax-related facility.’
The NBR chairman also alleged that the tobacco sector was evading huge amount of tax every year. In the current fiscal year the NBR set a target of Tk 300 crore to collect from bidi sector but in the first 8 months of the financial year it could collect only Tk 143 crore from the sector.
At the meeting, the BBSMS demanded withdrawal of duty imposed on the local bidi manufacturing industry.
The association also
demanded cancellation of the existing fourth slab of taxation on low-priced category of cigarette and fixation of the lowest price of a packet of cigarette containing 10 sticks at Tk 40 to save the local bidi industry.
At a separate meeting, Human Development Research Centre and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids demanded an increase of duty and taxes on cigarette and bidi so that the prices of those tobacco products increased and the use of tobacco reduced.
They also recommended elimination of the current system of price slabs as the basis for differential taxation and adoption of a uniform method in this regard.
‘It will increase the prices of cigarette and reduce tobacco use,’ said Abul Barkat, chief adviser of HDRC, also chairman of the state-owned Janata Bank.
Cigarette prices in Bangladesh are among the lowest in the world and bidi is even cheaper due to current price slabs and taxation method, he said.
The HDRA also suggested that the NBR should strengthen tobacco tax administration and stop duty-free sales of tobacco products in order to reduce tax evasion.
BBSMS president Bijoy Krishna Dey, and NBR members Syed Aminul Karim and Jahangir Hossain, among others, spoke at the meeting.
-With New Age input
