Swarnomoyee Mostafa Oishy:

Some influential tobacco companies are the main reasons behind delaying of law amendment.

Experts however expected that, the interim government will take necessary action on amending the tobacco control law.

To safeguard public health, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has taken an initiative to amend the tobacco control law. The draft amendment proposal has recently been sent to the Cabinet Division for approval, said a press release.

However, British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI) have opposed the proposed amendment and written letters to the respective Advisors of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law in this regard. The two tobacco companies have made several baseless claims to intimidate policymakers, such as alleged loss of government revenue. However, the National Board of Revenue data shows that tobacco revenue increased by 17.97 percent and 37.52 percent in the fiscal years 2005-06 and 2006-07 respectively following the passage of the Tobacco Control Act in 2005. Similarly, after the amendment in 2013, the revenue from tobacco industry increased by 25.51 percent and 46.52 percent in the subsequent fiscal years 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively.

ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), an anti-tobacco research and advocacy organization, said, “The Health Ministry’s initiative to strengthen the existing tobacco control law aims at protecting the non-smokers from second-hand smoke and shielding the youth from tobacco’s harmful effects. Therefore, the draft amendment must be passed immediately, undeterred by the ill tactics of the tobacco companies.”

It should be noted that tobacco claims 161,000 lives every year in Bangladesh. The current tobacco use rates among people aged 15 years or above is 35.3 percent. In 2017-18, the toll of tobacco use in the national economy stood at BDT 30,560 crore, significantly exceeding the BDT 22,810 crore revenue generated from the tobacco sector over the same timeframe.