NBR-Big Tobacco meeting violates FCTC
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday held a meeting with local cigarette manufacturers, violating the provision of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
The FCTC, a global public health treaty from World Health Organization (WHO) that Bangladesh ratified in 2004, recommends the signatories not hold any covert meeting with the tobacco manufacturers.
With the secret meeting at its mini-conference room, the NBR violated section 5.3 of the convention as it had invited the cigarette manufacturers to meet and discuss issues related to the tax structure of the sector.
The representatives from the Bangladesh Cigarette Manufacturers Association (BCMA) came to the NBR headquarters at around 12:15pm to press home their demands for the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2015-16.
A five-member delegation comprised of British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) Chairman Golam Mainuddin, Managing Director Shehzad Munim and Dhaka Tobacco Industries Managing Director Sheikh Bashir Uddin entered the mini-conference room of the NBR chairman at around 12:20pm. They had a meeting of about 45 minutes in there. Journalists were not allowed to enter the room.
The NBR usually holds meetings with the stakeholders at the conference room, where journalists are invited to cover news from the meeting.
At around 1pm, they came to the NBR conference room and had a pre-budget discussion publicly with NBR member Enayet Hossain as chair.
Just after the meeting, the manufacturers again entered the office of the NBR chairman and stayed there for another 30 minutes.
With the covert meeting at the mini-conference room, NBR has violated article 5.3 of FCTC that reads: “In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.”
The FCTC provides an internationally coordinated response to combat the tobacco epidemic and sets out specific steps for governments to address tobacco-related issues.
It has been alleged that representatives from tobacco-related industries put pressure on tax authorities to keep the tax on cigarettes low.
They also reportedly manipulate statistics and the number of workers employed in the tobacco factories to get different benefits from the government.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the prices of cigarettes, bidi, and other tobacco products in Bangladesh are considered the lowest in the world.
As many as 57,000 people die, while 382,000 become disabled because of tobacco consumption in Bangladesh. According to the World Bank, Tk11,000 crore is spent every year in Bangladesh on treating people that suffer from tobacco-related diseases.
Addressing the meeting, Dhaka Tobacco Industries Managing Director Sheikh Bashir Uddin asked the NBR to ensure an atmosphere for cigarette manufacturers and the government to enjoy a win-win situation.
The NBR meeting with tobacco manufacturers raised concerns from different quarters.
Former NBR member Muhammad Abdul Majid told the Dhaka Tribune that the NBR is committed to not taking any stand which is against any treaty that Bangladesh has ratified or against public health issues.
“We are entitled to maintain the provisions of the convention, but there may be some problems, for which, the commitment cannot be maintained. We cannot allow them to do anything, even for the sake of revenues as it will ultimately create a negative impact on the overall health issues of the public,” he said.
“The NBR cannot negotiate or discuss anything with them. What it can do is only the imposition of taxes,” he added.
Anti-tobacco campaigner PROGGA expressed dissatisfaction over the NBR move.
“There is a bar to closed-door meetings between government officials and tobacco producers as per the FCTC. Tobacco manufacturers can only have the meeting in a transparent and accountable manner,” a campaigner from PROGGA said.
Source: Dhaka tribune,10 May, 2015