“Top Cancer Experts and 150 Doctors Urge Tobacco Tax Hike to Save Lives in Bangladesh”

Press Release::

Dhaka, [05 May 2025] — To discourage tobacco use and protect the public from its devastating impact and associated health risks, the country’s leading cancer specialists, along with 150 doctors from Ahsania Mission Cancer and General Hospital, have called on the government to increase the price and tax on tobacco products. In a powerful joint statement, they have urged the government to increase tobacco taxes and prices to discourage use and protect public health.

The signatories include eminent cancer specialists such as Prof. Dr. Syed Akram Hussain, Member of the Health Sector Reform Commission and Senior Consultant in Clinical Oncology and Radiotherapy at Square Hospital; Prof. Dr. M A Hai, Director of the Bangladesh Cancer Society Hospital and Welfare Home; Prof. Dr. Golam Mohiuddin Faruque, President of the Bangladesh Cancer Society; Prof. Dr. A M M Shariful Alam, Head of Clinical Oncology at Ahsania Mission Cancer and General Hospital; and Prof (Brig Gen) Dr Md Quadrat-E-Elahi (Rtd), Professor of Medicine and Senior Consultant in Medical Oncology at the same institution.

In their statement, initiated by Dhaka Ahsania Mission, the doctors emphasized that tobacco is linked to six of the eight leading causes of preventable death globally. The health risks associated with tobacco use—such as cancer, heart attacks, strokes, respiratory diseases, and gangrene—are now widely known.

According to a fact sheet titled “Trend of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh”, developed by the Department of Public Health and Informatics at Bangladesh Medical University, 47% of adults aged 25–69 use tobacco in some form. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2017 found that approximately 38.4 million non-smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke in public places, workplaces, and public transport—exposure that is equally harmful.

Tobacco use increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and chronic respiratory diseases by 57%, and raises the risk of various cancers by 109%. As a result, over 161,000 people in Bangladesh die prematurely each year due to tobacco-related diseases.

The doctors strongly advocate for effective tax policies to reduce tobacco use and safeguard public health, which they say will also contribute significantly to achieving a tobacco-free Bangladesh.

According to the latest data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the country’s per capita income has increased by $468 over the past five years (2020-2024), reaching $2,738 in 2024. Yet cigarette prices have remained largely unchanged, making them more affordable. Although the current interim government increased the supplementary duty on all tiers of cigarettes to 67% in January—a positive step—lower & middle tier cigarettes remain highly accessible, currently priced at only BDT 6 & 8 per stick respectively. Notably, 75% of smokers in Bangladesh consume these low-tier products.

To discourage tobacco use among youth and low-income groups, the doctors recommend merging the low and medium tiers and setting the minimum retail price at BDT 9 per stick. This would reduce consumption, increase government revenue, and support economic recovery efforts. For premium cigarettes, they propose raising the price of a 10-stick pack from BDT 185 to BDT 190.

Additional recommendations include setting the minimum price of one bidi at BDT 1 with a 45% supplementary duty; setting the retail prices of 10g of jarda and gul at BDT 55 and BDT 30 respectively; and imposing a 60% supplementary duty on both products.

If the government adopts these tax reforms in the upcoming 2025–26 fiscal year, the smoking rate could drop from 15.1% to 13.03%. Approximately 2.4 million adults could be encouraged to quit smoking, and 1.7 million young people discouraged from starting. Over the long term, nearly 1.7 million premature deaths could be prevented, and the government could generate BDT 68,000 crore in revenue—an increase of BDT 20,000 crore, or 43% more than the previous year.

The doctors concluded that increasing tobacco prices through taxation is a globally recognized and effective strategy to curb usage. They stressed that reforming the current tax structure is essential to realizing the vision of a tobacco-free Bangladesh.