Staff Correspondent:

Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Mohammad Shafiqul Alam on Wednesday stressed the need for innovative social mobilisation to prevent youth from taking up smoking, saying that raising tobacco prices alone is not enough to curb tobacco use.

He said this while addressing a workshop on increasing tobacco taxes in the 2025-26 fiscal budget as the chief guest at the ERF Auditorium on Wednesday.

The Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) and Development Organisation of the Rural Poor (DORP) organised the workshop.

Dr. Md. Abdur Rouf, Member (VAT Policy) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) attended as a special guest.

Presenting the keynote paper, DORP Deputy Director Muhammad Jobair Hasan proposed setting a minimum price of Tk 9 per cigarette stick to discourage smoking among lower- and middle-income groups.

He pointed out that over the past three fiscal years, the multi-tiered ad valorem tax system has resulted in only a 7.3% increase in cigarette prices—an insignificant rise compared to the surging costs of essential goods.

Consequently, cigarette sales have grown by an average of 4% per year, he said

The presentation recommended merging the lower and middle tiers into a new category with a minimum cigarette price of Tk 9 per stick in the 2025-26 fiscal year.