National Board of Revenue chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan on Tuesday said they are thinking to introduce QR Code system band-roll for tobacco sector to prevent tax evasion.
He was speaking at a pre-budget meeting with Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance (ATMA) at the conference room of the Revenue Building.
He said that as the tax is high on tobacco items huge amount of illicit cigarettes enter in the country depriving the NBR of getting due revenue.
The NBR chief said that they are conducting drive against these cigarettes across the country.
He said that some bidi companies used to use counterfeit band-roll to avoid paying taxes in the national exchequer.
"Even they bring those band-rolls from abroad after printing in there," he said. The NBR chairman put emphasis on establishing cashless society to stop tax evasion.
The ATMA in their proposal said that the existing four price tier (low, medium, high, and premium) system in cigarettes has rendered the tobacco price and tax measures less effective.
Particularly, the very narrow price difference between low and medium tier cigarettes allows consumers to choose brands belonging to any of these two tiers.
To safeguard public health, this glaring loophole can be plugged by merging low and medium price tiers and reducing the number of price tiers to three.
The ATMA said that prices of tobacco products in Bangladesh are considerably low.
ATMA delegation member City Editor of The Daily Janakantha Kawser Rahman placed the proposals. The other members were Deputy Editor of the Business Standard Sazzadur Rahman, ATMA Convener Mortuza Haider Liton and Co-convener Mizan Chowdhury.
The proposals from ATMA for the FY 2025-26 are as follows: The low and medium tier should be merged into one and prices for 10 sticks of the merged tier should be set at Tk 90. The proposal, if realised, will encourage the low-income smokers to quit and discourage the youth from lighting up. �"UNB
