Public Health on Top

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has recently circulated a notice in some of the leading national newspapers of the country including the Daily Prothom Alo and Daily Kaler Kantha regarding the smuggling and illicit trade of cigarettes. But in reality, the notice is nothing but an advertisement of cigarettes. The advertisement highlights the price of cigarettes by printing them in very large fonts, a style that is almost identical to that of multinational tobacco giant British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB). Since the declaration of budget this year, BATB has been trying to draw public attention to the prices of its cigarette brands through retail store banners and mobile SMS. It has become a matter of concern for anti-tobacco activists and organizations of the country that NBR is advertising in this manner in the name of stopping illicit tobacco trade. Previously, in 2017, this very govt. body launched a week-long anti-cigarette smuggling campaign titled ‘Targeting Smuggled Cigarette’ which has later been stopped due to the strong protests from media and anti-tobacco organizations. It should be noted that tobacco companies, big tobacco lobbyists, and other organizations that work for the interest of the industry often attempt to influence the tobacco taxation process and initiatives with all their illicit-tobacco-trade talks. They claim that huge supply of illicit cigarettes is being smuggled into Bangladesh from India and other neighboring countries which results in a gigantic revenue loss for the govt. But this claim is entirely baseless and defies the basic logic of Economics. This is because Bangladesh is one of those countries in the world where cigarette prices are the lowest. A 2016 World Health Organization (WHO) report analyzed the average price of a cigarette pack containing 20 cigarettes in 22 countries and found out that average cigarettes price is more than twice in India than it is in Bangladesh. So, the common logic of Economics dictates that there is no scope for Bangladesh to experience the influx of smuggled cigarettes. Tobacco companies always try to confuse and frighten the policy-makers by planting the irrational fear of boogeyman, which in this case is the fear of illicit cigarette trade. To fish in troubled waters, tobacco companies often stage events in the airports and some other significant areas where massive amount of foreign cigarettes get caught. These staged events generally produce a number of media reports and are later weaponized to manipulate the policy-makers. At the same time, tobacco companies use some pseudo anti-tobacco organizations that participate in the anti –illicit tobacco drives of NBR. In order to achieve a tobacco-free Bangladesh, such type of activities should be stopped immediately. No matter what boogeyman the tobacco company presents before the public and the policy-makers, there is no alternative to increasing tobacco taxes when it comes to tobacco control and curbing tobacco use. At the same time, to save the policy-makers from the interference and manipulation of tobacco companies, it is a must to formulate and implement code-of-conduct and other policies in accordance with the FCTC Article 5.3.