Proposal to set minimum price per cigarette at 17 taka, maximum at 35 taka

❐ Staff Reporter

Two prominent health organizations have proposed setting a minimum price of each cigarette at 17 taka and a maximum price of 35 taka in an effort to keep the younger generation away from smoking, prevent premature deaths, and increase government revenue.

The National Heart Foundation and the United Forum Against Tobacco jointly presented this proposal at a press conference organized at the National Press Club today, Monday, May 11.

The press conference presented a specific plan to re-price cigarettes in four tiers — premium, high, medium, and low.

At the premium level, the price of a 10-pack of cigarettes has been proposed at Tk 200, where the retail price of each cigarette, including duty and tax, will be Tk 35. At the higher level, the price of a 10-pack of cigarettes has been proposed at Tk 150, where the price of each cigarette, including duty, will be Tk 25.45.

And it has been proposed to increase the price of low and medium-level packets, currently sold in the market for 80 and 60 taka, to 100 taka, so that the price of each cigarette will reach 17 taka and 1 paisa.

Experts say that if this pricing structure is introduced from the 2026-27 fiscal year, three major positive changes will occur in the country.

First, it will be possible to prevent the premature deaths of approximately 370,000 people in the long term.

Secondly, about 500,000 adults will quit smoking and about 372,000 young people will not become addicted to smoking again.

Third, the government’s revenue from the tobacco sector will increase by about Tk 44,000 crore, reaching a total of Tk 85,000 crore.

At the press conference, public health expert Dr. Mushtaq Hossain directly asked, “Why won’t the price of cigarettes increase even if the prices of all products increase? If the price increases, young and low-income people will be discouraged from smoking for economic reasons.”

Dr. Sufian Nahin Shimul, a professor at the Institute of Health Economics at Dhaka University, criticized the NBR’s policy and said that it is most important to increase the prices of the low and middle tiers, which account for about 90 percent of the cigarette market. This is because consumers in this tier are highly price-sensitive and are most likely to quit smoking due to price increases.

Dr. Muhammad Sakhawat Hossain, assistant professor at the National Institute of Chest Diseases, highlighted the seriousness of the health risks. He warned that 80 to 90 percent of lung cancer patients in the country are smokers and 12,000 people lose their lives to this disease alone every year.

Those concerned believe that this proposal by the two organizations is being considered as an important message to government policymakers ahead of the upcoming budget.