Cigarettes to be costlier

The price of cigarettes is set to go up as the finance minister has proposed increased tax measures to curb the use of tobacco and maximise the revenue from this sector.

The price of smokeless tobacco products, however, has been proposed to remain unchanged in the next fiscal.

In his budget speech in parliament on Thursday, finance minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed the minimum price of 10 sticks of cheap cigarettes at Tk 40, with a 57 per cent supplementary duty.

Apart from that, the minimum price of 10 sticks of medium segment cigarette has been proposed at Tk 65 while the price of a 10-stick pack of high segment cigarette at Tk 111 and the premium cigarette at Tk 142.

A 65 per cent supplementary duty has been imposed on these three segments of cigarette.

The price of 25 sticks of non-filtered bidi will remain at Tk 18 while that of a 12-stick pack at Tk 9 and eight-stick pack at Tk 6 as the prevailing 30 per cent supplementary duty on non-filtered bidi would continue in the next year.

Besides, the 40 per cent supplementary duty on filtered bidi will continue in the next fiscal while a 20-stick pack of filtered bidi would cost Tk 19 while 10-stick pack Tk 10.

Also, the prices of jarda – Tk40 for 10gm – and gul – Tk20 for 10gm – will remain the same, with a supplementary duty of 55 per cent for both.

The finance minister started his budget around 3pm on Thursday. It was his fourth budget speech at the parliament.

The total size of the proposed budget stood at Tk 6,780 billion. The government expects to bag an earning of Tk 4,362 billion in the year while the remaining Tk 2,417 billion has been shown as deficit in the budget.

The government would collect loans from domestic and foreign sources to make up the deficit.