Association of Locally Owned Cigarette Manufacturers

Publish: 5:43 PM, May 18, 2022 | Update: 5:43 PM, May 18, 2022

Due to the lack of policy support, the existence of 100% domestic cigarette companies is on the verge of disappearing. At the same time the native tobacco farmers are getting unwell.

Association of Locally Owned Cigarette Manufacturers (ALOCM) at a press conference in the capital on Monday demanded speedy implementation of Competition Law to protect the existence of the domestic-owned tobacco industry.

ALOCM leader Nazmun Nahar Lucky addressed the press conference with Raisul Haque Paban in the chair. Representatives from 20 organizations related to tobacco industry were present at that time.

Speakers on behalf of the organization said that only 10 per cent of the market for tobacco industry is in the hands of domestic owners whereas about 90 per cent of the market is occupied by multinational companies. If the Competition Act 2012 passed by the government is implemented, equal participation of all companies in the market will be ensured, revenue dodging will be reduced, there will be an equitable market system and 100% domestically owned tobacco industry will be protected. But if this law is not implemented, the domestic tobacco industry will be brought to the brink of destruction.

The leaders of the organization complained that the government had decided to create two price levels in 2017-18 to save the domestic tobacco industry and to upgrade the international brand for multinationals in the 2018-19 fiscal year by preserving the lower slabs of domestic companies. But for unknown reasons these two decisions did not see the light.

ALOCM has demanded that either of these two decisions be implemented in the budget of 2022-23. If any one of these proposals is implemented, the estimated revenue collection in this sector in the coming 2022-23 financial year by selling the same amount of cigarette butts this year will be about 36 per cent more than the current financial year.

They said that the price of counterfeit cigarettes is also increasing as the price of low quality cigarettes is increasing.