Cig trafficking prevention week celebration, tobacco cos cage NBR

Hiking cigarette price will increase the rate of cigarette smuggling and the government is to lose a huge amount of revenue - the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is all set to establish this twisted information by observing the ‘Smuggled Cigarette Prevention Week’ with the theme of ‘Targeting Smuggled Cigarette’. Be noted that tobacco companies run such campaigns annually right before the placement of the National Budget to mislead policymakers and tax-makers on tobacco taxation issues. As part of strategy, tobacco companies instigate such smuggling events and highlight the smuggling on mainstream media. PROGGA media monitoring data analysis shows that reports on cigarette smuggling increases more right before the budget each year and they disappear or become less frequent after the budget placement is done.
A letter, over celebrating smuggled cigarette prevention week, proposed from the Customs Detectives and Investigation Department is awaiting NBR approval. Anti-tobacco platforms suspect British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) as a potential sponsor. In fact, smuggling of tobacco products in Bangladesh is very marginal. Since smuggling points on a poor border/ port management issues, celebrating such a week may spread misconception among everyone which is entirely undesirable. Such initiatives should be stopped at once.