Public Health on Top

The Ministry of Finance has launched a strange mission to build a tobacco-free country with the suggestions of multinational tobacco companies. A demi-official letter has recently been sent from the Finance Ministry to the Trade Minister, Commerce Minister, Agriculture Minister, Health and Family Welfare Minister, Textiles and Jute Minister, Cabinet Secretary and Principal Secretary of the PM’s Office, seeking their counsel to shut down the production of bidi and smokeless tobacco within the next three years. In the same letter, it was also mentioned that it may require 20 years to shut down the production of cigarettes considering the ‘high demand and rampant illegal trades’ of cigarettes. Anti-tobacco activists suspect that multinational tobacco companies played key role in drafting this particular letter. First of all, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, National Tobacco Control Cell and anti-tobacco organizations were completely in dark regarding this letter. Secondly, the information and data presented in this letter are untrue and contradictory. For example: the letter claims that demand for cigarettes is high in Bangladesh which is quite a false information. The highest demand in Bangladesh lies in bidi and smokeless tobacco products. Among the tobacco users of the country, only 30-35 percent use cigarettes whereas 60-65 percent use bidi and smokeless tobacco products. Thirdly, the illegal trade of cigarettes in Bangladesh is almost negligible. A 2016 analysis of the prices of cigarettes in 114 countries by World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that cigarettes cost less in Bangladesh than 111 countries of the world, particularly than its neighboring India. Fourthly, the letter does not mention any plan or measures to curb the demand for tobacco products. Rather, it only deals with the shutdown of supply (production) which is completely inconsistent with the guidelines of FCTC and the existing tobacco control law. The sudden shutdown of supply without actually curbing the demand beforehand will deliver an entirely opposite outcome, resulting in an influx of smuggled products. A tobacco-free country can be built only by curbing the demand for tobacco products with measures in line with FCTC and National Tobacco Control Law, i.e. pushing the tobacco products beyond the purchasing power of the public by increasing taxes, the implementation of proper Graphic Health Warning (GHW), ensuring smoke-free environment in public places and transports, banning the promotion, advertisement and sponsorship of tobacco companies etc. FCTC also has clear instruction to reduce the supply of tobacco i.e. to encourage the cultivation of alternative crops, to stop the sale of tobacco products to minor and by minor etc. So, to build a tobacco-free Bangladesh, there is no alternative to the implementation of FCTC. Hence, special emphasis has been put on the implementation of FCTC in the 7th Five-Year Plan, The Sustainable Development Goals and very recently, in the speech delivered by the Prime Minister. Lastly, tobacco companies often offer unattainable suggestions to governments in reducing tobacco use across the world. These suggestions are always too unrealistic to be implemented. Most of the plans of the Finance Ministry as mentioned in the letter are also quite unrealistic and unachievable. For example: The Finance Minister has already compelled to postpone his planned shutdown of bidi industry till 2030 as mentioned in the proposed budget for the FY 2018-19. But still no roadmap in the light of FCTC has been adopted.

The interference of multinational tobacco companies has also been reflected in the proposed budget for the FY 2018-19. The govt. has let the multinational tobacco companies expand its death trade by leaving the price of high-tier expensive cigarettes (Tk. 101 per 10 sticks) unchanged for three consecutive years. The data provided by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) suggests the National Per Capita Income (Nominal) has increased by 24.64 percent in the last three years. But the price of pricy cigarettes has remained unchanged which means that the real price of these cigarettes has actually dropped during this period. At the same time, in a budget-related govt. order, the National Board of Revenues (NBR) has allowed a tax remission of Tk. 2000 cr. of due revenues from BATB’s low-tier cigarettes. So under this circumstances, we demand that to build a tobacco-free country, the govt. must come out of the trap set by the multinational tobacco companies and adopt as well as implement a roadmap prepared in line with FCTC.