ঢাকাশনিবার , ৮ অগাস্ট ২০২৬
The government enacted the Smoking and Using of Tobacco Products (Control) Act, 2005 and further strengthened it through an amendment in 2013. Two decades of implementation have revealed certain weaknesses in the law and brought new challenges to light. In response, a group of renowned economists in Bangladesh has emphasized the urgent need for a stronger tobacco control law to protect public health and economic security. They expressed this in a joint statement calling for immediate amendments to the Act and shared the statement with the media on Today, Wednesday afternoon, October 29, 2025.
In the statement, they said, “We are grateful to the government of Bangladesh for taking the initiative to strengthen the tobacco control law. But to thwart this initiative, cigarette companies are, as always, using various misleading and false propaganda. They are spreading baseless claims that strengthening tobacco control laws will reduce government revenue—just as they do when opposing increases in tobacco prices and taxes. We strongly condemn such actions of cigarette companies and are presenting real information for the citizens.
They noted that, “When the Tobacco Control Law was first enacted in 2005, tobacco sector revenue stood at Tk 2,888 crore. In the next fiscal year 2005-06, the revenue was 3,351 crore taka. This trend of increase continued in the following years. In 2013 the year of the amendment it had risen to Tk 10,170 crore. In the 2013-14 fiscal year, it increased to Tk 12,556 crore, and this trend of increase has continued to date. In the latest (2024-25) fiscal year, a total of Tk 40,411 crore was collected from the tobacco sector. Therefore, this clearly demonstrates that stronger tobacco control and higher taxes not only protect public health by reducing diseases and deaths, but also enhance government revenue.
Regarding tobacco-related burden, they said that a recent study by the University of Dhaka and Johns Hopkins University showed that in 2024, the health and environmental costs due to tobacco use were Tk 86,000 crore. Of which Tk 65,000 crore was tobacco-related health costs. At the same time, the revenue from tobacco was Tk 40,000 crore, which is less than half of the economic losses caused by tobacco use. Each year, approximately 400,000 people in Bangladesh fall into poverty due to tobacco-related medical expenses.
The economists warned that tobacco companies deliberately conceal such information to protect their profits, showing little regard for human life. They mislead the public and hide the truth through false claims. According to the statement, these companies target youth by creating smoking zones in restaurants, obstructing efforts to raise prices and restrict retail sales, secretly organizing vaping events to promote e-cigarette use, and opposing effective proposals to strengthen the law—actions that contribute to youth tobacco addiction.
In light of these challenges, economists have called on policymakers to be vigilant against the false propaganda of cigarette companies and to take immediate steps to strengthen the Smoking and Tobacco Use (Control) Act to protect the health of the people of the country and to adopt a comprehensive tobacco tax policy to introduce an effective and sustainable tobacco tax system in the country.
A total of 11 economists endorsed the statement: They are: Professor Dr. Nazma Begum, Former Director of the Bureau of Economic Research and Professor, Professor, Dr. Masuda Yasmeen; Professor, Dr. Selim Raihan, Professor Dr. Rumana Huque; Professor Dr. Atanu Rabbani; Associate Professor S.M. Abdullah; Associate Professor Dr. Suzana Karim; Associate Professor Md. Nazmul Hossain; of Department of Economics, University of Dhaka; Professor, Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka; Dr. Shafiun Nahin Shimul; Economist and Professor Zahidul Qayyum; Associate Professor Salina Siddiqua, Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka.
