Public Health on Top

A DO letter, issued with the signature of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman to the Health Ministry that government body for revenue collections (NBR) is highly interested to favor the tobacco companies. Following the law, trading of tobacco products without the pictorial warning is banned in the market from March 19, 2016 whereas the NBR Chairman has requested the Health Ministry to inform the tobacco companies about the deadline that how many days they could sell the products without the warning on the packets. Moreover, it also directed that the graphical implementation should be ensured on the factory instead on the market. Besides, the letter also agreed to place the health damaging images on the lower part of the packets in the name of revenue loss argument.

On the other side, a team of multinational tobacco company, British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) representatives had set a meeting with the Honorable Industry Minister on March 29 at the Ministry office. The issue was publicized on mass media with the assistance of ATMA members, and based on the objections from the anti-tobacco platforms and media reports, the meeting has been cancelled. Recently, the pre-budget activity published by the NBR announces about a meeting with the tobacco company representatives. It should be ensured that the meeting is held after following the directives of the FCTC 5.3. With the excuse of their business, the tobacco companies try to get favour from the Finance, Industry and Commerce Ministries right before the budget each year and undertake some activities. They have started the activities like the past records in this year as well.

The government has formulated the tobacco control law for controlling tobacco use and damages, and it does not aim at bringing profit for the tobacco companies. But the NBR is presenting the logics of the tobacco companies as its own logic by ignoring the law which has been passed in the National Parliament. The National Budget is ahead and we smell that the government body for tax collection will try its best to provide tax facilities to the tobacco companies and if the situation continues, the promise of honorable prime minister to make Bangladesh tobacco-free by 2040 will turn into a failure.