Price of cigarettes to be hiked

The finance minister on Thursday afternoon has proposed to increase the price of cigarettes in the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2021-22.

In the proposed budget, the finance minister said, "I am proposing to fix the price of the lower 10 sticks of cigarettes at Tk39 and above and the supplementary duty at 57 per cent.”

“Apart from this, I am proposing to fix the price of 10 sticks of middle level at Tk63 and above; 10 sticks of higher level of cigarettes at Tk102 and above; 10 sticks of very high level at the rate of Tk135 and above; and supplementary duty of 65 percent for these three levels.

However, the finance minister did not put extra pressure on the local bidi industry. 

In the budget proposal, Kamal said, "I am proposing to keep the price of 25 sticks of hand-made filter-separated bidis at Tk18, 12 sticks at Tk9 and 8 sticks at Tk6 and supplementary duty at 30 per cent.”

“I am proposing to keep the price of 20 sticks of filtered bidi at Tk 19 and 10 sticks at Tk 10 and supplementary duty at 40 per cent.”

The Finance Minister further said in the budget session, "I am proposing to fix the price of jorda at Tk40 for per 10 grams and supplementary duty at 55 per cent and the price of gul at Tk20 for per 10 grams and supplementary duty at 55 per cent as like previous year."