The government has proposed a price increase for bidis and cigarettes in the 2024-25 fiscal year. On Thursday, June 6, Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali presented the proposal while unveiling the new fiscal year`s budget in the National Parliament.
Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali stated, "Cigarettes are extremely harmful to human health. To reduce the use of such harmful products and to increase revenue collection, I propose setting the supplementary duty rate at 66 percent instead of the current 65 percent."
Additionally, the finance minister proposed increasing the VAT rate on locally produced paper for cigarettes and bidis from 7.5 percent to 15 percent.
The proposed budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year is Tk 7,97,000 crore, which is Tk 36,000 crore more than the previous fiscal year (2023-24). The budget for the current fiscal year was Tk 7,61,000 crore.
The theme of the proposed budget is "Commitment to building a happy, prosperous, developed, and smart Bangladesh."
