Raising Tobacco Taxes in FY 2025-2026: Aligning Tobacco Tax Reform with Income Growth, Inflation-Adjusted Revenue Goals, and Promoting Public Health

This Fact Sheet was developed by tobacco control partners from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Economics for Health, Vital Strategies, and World Health Organization. The fact sheet assesses the current tobacco tax structure in Bangladesh and the impact of an alternative tobacco tax proposal. Specifically, the researchers propose merging the low- and medium tiers, with a maximum retail price (MRP) of BDT 90, and setting the MRP for the premium tier to BDT 190. This scenario would encourage nearly 2.4 million adults to quit smoking and deter more than 1.7 million youths from initiating use. In turn, this would save more than 864,758 current adult smokers and nearly 869,079 youths from premature death. This tax reform would also generate more than BDT 68,000 in revenues, BDT 20,000 more than the previous fiscal year. The fact sheet concludes with recommendations for policy makers to implement the proposed tax reform to reap the public health and fiscal benefits.