Income surcharge proposed

The government of Bangladesh is set to impose a 2.5 percent surcharge on the incomes of the manufacturers of tobacco products, including cigarettes, bidis, zarda and gul, according to a story in The New Nation.

This was one of the proposals put forward when the Finance Minister AMA Muhith made his budget speech for the fiscal year 2017-18 on Thursday.

In respect of packs of 10 low-segment cigarettes, Muhith proposed to increase the minimum price from Tk 23 to Tk27 and the supplementary duty rate from 50 percent to 52 percent.

And in respect of packs of 10 ‘foreign-branded’ cigarettes he proposed setting the minimum price at Tk35 and the supplementary duty rate at 55 percent.

However, the government is not increasing prices or supplementary duty rates for medium- and high-segment cigarettes that are currently sold at Tk45 and above.

Muhith proposed to fix the tax-inclusive price of packs of 25 non-filter bidis at Tk15 and that of packs of 20 filter bidis at Tk15. The existing supplementary duty rates for non-filter and filter bidis will remain unchanged at 30 percent and 35 percent respectively.

Cigarettes, bidis and other tobacco products were injurious to health, and the government and society incurred additional ‘medicare’ costs due to the consumption of these products, Muhith said.

Therefore, high rates of duties were imposed on tobacco and tobacco production, and this year the government would impose a 25 percent export duty on these items with a view to discouraging their production and consumption, he added.