Cigarettes will be costlier as the finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed to increase supplementary duty on tobacco consumption. The Finance minister said the measure was taken “to reduce the consumption of tobacco products and maximise revenue collection from this sector.” The minister proposed: “Price per 10-sticks lower slab cigarette to become Tk 39 and above and supplementary duty on it to be 57 percent; I propose to fix the price per 10-sticks middle slab cigarette at Tk 63 and above, that of high slab 10-sticks cigarette at Tk 97 and above and the price of premium slab 10-sticks cigarette at Tk 128 and above with supplementary duty of 65 percent for all those three slabs (middle and above). “I propose to raise the price of handmade non-filter 25-sticks Bidi at Tk 18 from existing Tk 14, that of 12-sticks at Tk 9 from the current Tk 6.72 and the price of 8-sticks at Tk 6 from the existing Tk. 4.48, where supplementary duty of this product will be unchanged at 30 percent. I also propose to fix the price of 20-sticks filter bidi at Tk 19 from existing Tk 17 and that of 10-sticks filter bidi at Tk 10 from existing Tk 8.50, where supplementary duty will remain unchanged at 40 percent. “I propose to fix the price of 10 gm of Jarda at Tk 40 and the price of 10 gm of Gul at Tk 20. Supplementary duty on both products is proposed to become 55 percent.”
