Cigarette prices are set to rise as the government has proposed to hike supplementary duty on cigarettes containing tobacco products and double the VAT on cigarette paper.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali made the announcement while presenting the national budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 in Parliament on Thursday.
The Finance Minister said, “Cigarettes are extremely harmful to human health. In order to reduce the consumption of tobacco and similar products and to raise revenue from this sector, I propose to levy a supplementary duty at 66 per cent instead of 65 per cent on cigarettes containing tobacco products specified in the Second Schedule to the Act.”
Value added tax (VAT) on cigarette or beedi paper has been doubled.
The Finance Minister said, “I propose to fix VAT on cigarette paper/bidi paper at 15 per cent instead of 7.5 per cent at local manufacturing level.”