Public Health on Top

Throughout the country, bidi companies have been organizing human chains and press conferences demanding a reduction in taxes under the banner of a number of puppet organizations, despite the blatant fact that taxation on bidi has been kept the same this year for the fourth consecutive years. According to reports from all over the country, bidi companies have organized at least 4 human chains and 2 press conferences in Dhaka, Rangpur, Tangail and Sylhet in September 2020 alone under the banner of a total of 8 front organizations. The events have also been publicized in mass media. The companies have also been able to manipulate the Members of Parliament (MPs) into stand by their unreasonable demands. Recently, 10 MPs have sent a DO letter addressed to Finance Minister calling for the reduction in bidi taxes. In the letter, the MPs have also expressed concern that hundreds of thousands of bidi workers will become jobless due to the ongoing pandemic. In a 2019 report titled The Revenue and Employment Outcome of Bidi Taxation in Bangladesh by the National Board of Revenue (NBR), it was found that the total number of full-time equivalent bidi workers, including regular, part-time and contractual workers, stands at 46,916. The report also mentioned that 78.6 percent of the bidi workers would give up working for this harmful industry if the government takes measures for rehabilitation into other livelihoods. While the World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning that tobacco increases the risk of Covid-19 infection and subsequent grave illness, these MPs have used the pandemic as a pretext to call for unjustified benefit for an inhumane industry which is also in conflict with the Honorable Prime Minister’s Vision for a Tobacco-Free Bangladesh by 2040. It should be noted that in Bangladesh, bidi is a very cheap product and the prevalence of bidi use is widespread among the poor.