Call to impose more taxes on tobacco products
BSS
RAJSHAHI: Development activists at a human chain programme here yesterday voiced for enhancing taxes on tobacco products for the sake of saving many people from various non-contagious diseases caused by tobacco consumption, reports BSS.
Association for Community Development (ACD) and Tobacco Control Coalition jointly organised the human chain at Collectorate Building premises demanding enhanced taxes on all tobacco products including bidi and cigarettes. Speakers said Bangladesh is one of the highest tobacco using countries that has now become a matter of grave concern.
They viewed more than 4.13 crore people use tobacco products, both smokeless, and 12 lakh of them are infected with various diseases like lung cancer, brain hemorrhage, heart and respiratory tract infections and around 57,000 of the infected patients died every year.
Moreover, around Taka 5,100 crore are being spent for treatment purposes of the infected patients yearly.
Adoption of a national tobacco policy along with imposing heavy taxation on all tobacco products could discourage its consumption and save thousands of human lives annually. Raihanul Islam, Project Coordinator of ACD, who spoke on the occasion as focal person, said proper execution of the tobacco control law has become an urgent need to protect many non-smokers from passive smoking.
