Public Health on Top

The govt. of Bangladesh has become stuck in the trap, masked as profit, set by British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB). Since different government institutions hold a total of 9.49 percent share in BATB, in 2018, the government received only BDT 28 crore (around USD 3.2 million ) as cash dividend from the multinational tobacco company. In the same year, BATB was offered a staggering tax relief, amounting to more than BDT 2000 crore (more than USD 2352.77 million) through a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) by the country’s National Board of Revenue (NBR). This indicates that BATB is abusing the govt.’s share, obtaining tax reliefs and other benefits in return for a very negligible profit. The SRO issued to grant BATB the relief was signed NBR’s chairman who served the company as an Independent Director for a prolonged period. An analysis of the annual reports of 04 (four) stock-market listed multinational companies where different government institutions hold share shows that the number of government appointed directors is much higher in case of BATB. For its 21.88 percent share in IPDC Finance Limited, the government appointed only 2 govt. officials. In cases of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Bangladesh Limited and Linde Bangladesh, the number of govt. appointed representative in Board of Directors stands at 01 (one) each, for 12.75 percent and 16.11 percent shares respectively. The number of directors becomes astonishingly high when it comes to BATB. For only 9.49 percent share, 05 (five) current and retired govt. officials are occupied in the BATB Board. This has handed BATB an opportunity to make unobstructed infiltration into government administration and policymaking and to interfere in tobacco control mechanism.
If such situation persists where tobacco companies are allowed to take advantage of government partnership and exact benefits and interfere in tobacco control mechanism, and even worse, if the government continues to have partnership with tobacco companies, achieving a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040 will stay beyond the realm of possibility. So it is imperative for the government to divest its involvement and partnership of all sorts from tobacco companies and to adopt policies and rules, preventing government institutions from buying shares of tobacco companies, in order to realize and prove its sincerity regarding its own vision of a tobacco-free country by 2040.