Prices of cigarettes and other tobacco products have gone up after the proposed national budget for fiscal year 2019-20 was presented in the parliament on June 13 last week.

In the past few years, cigarettes have seen unprecedented rise in prices as the government pushed to discourage consumption of tobacco products and meet the objectives of the Tobacco Control Goal 2040.

The initiative has caused the price of a 20-stick cigarette packet of premium brands to rise as much as Taka 44 within a year.

Organizations and activists that work for anti-tobacco campaigns have expressed relief at the price hike of cigarettes though smokers are not happy about it. The activists are of the opinion that the move would help the government to achieve their goal to control consumption of tobacco products within 2040.

A 20-stick premium brand packet is now being sold for Taka 246 while that of a mid-priced segment is being sold for Taka 186 since last week. Back in 2017 and 2018, a premium cigarette packet cost Taka 202 while a mid‑priced brand was sold for between Taka 140 and 150.

Talking to the reporter, Arshad Alam, a shopkeeper at Mohammadpur bus stop, said “The price hike has caused cigarette sales to fall. We are unable to sell as many cigarettes as we used to in the past.”

“I used to sell nearly about 100 packets of cigarettes daily but the figure has now dropped to 70 or 80. It seems consumers have already cut on their cigarette consumption after the price hike,” Alam added.

Sabbir Ahmed, a service holder from Mirpur 11, said, “The prices of cigarettes are rising every year and ordinary consumers like me are suffering due to this. Although we know that our government has an anti-tobacco policy to control use of tobacco products, the level of increase in prices has become unbearable.”

In comparison, low-priced cigarette brands have seen their price go up by Taka 10 this year while the price rose by Taka 18 in 2018.

Experts in the field said that raising the price of cigarettes was a good initiative and it was clear that the government was trying to achieve its Tobacco Control Goal by 2040.

The experts said that throughout the process, it must be kept in mind that the industry was one of the top and foremost tax contributors of the country.

The government should work towards the target one step at a time so that our tax revenues did not see a sharp decline all at once, they added.