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Bangladesh smokers burn $166,000 daily: Hindustan Times
Dhaka, May 15: With some 20 million smokers in Bangladesh, a substantial number of them figure among the 3.5 million people killed globally by tobacco every year, reports Xinhua.
Dhaka, May 15: With some 20 million smokers in Bangladesh, a substantial number of them figure among the 3.5 million people killed globally by tobacco every year, reports Xinhua.
This was revealed at an anti-tobacco programme jointly organised by the United Nations Information Centre and two local voluntary anti-tobacco smoking organisations, Coalition Against Tobacco (CAT) and Adhunik, in Dhaka on Thursday ahead of the World No Tobacco Day on May 31, the Daily Star said on Friday.
Giving some alarming statistics, the meeting said if on an average, one cigarette is smoked per person per day, these smokers would burn 20 million cigarettes daily.
With an average cost of 50 paisa per cigarette, smokers blow up 10 million Taka (around $166,000) daily, or 3.65 billion Taka ($60.8 million) annually.
The country's annual budget is a little over 40 billion Taka ($666.65 million), Adhunik president Nurul Islam told the meeting.
He said the truth is that countries suffer huge economic losses as a result of high health care costs and lost productivity due to tobacco-related illness and premature deaths.
Several countries are net importers of tobacco leaf and products, losing millions of dollars each year in foreign exchange as a result, when their basic human needs are food, clothing, shelter, education and health.
Consequently, children suffer from severe malnutrition and various deficiency disorders. This led to repeated infections and increased child mortality and thus a vicious circle is established through misdirected expenditure on tobacco, Islam said. A study in Dhaka shows that a rickshaw-puller could feed each of his three children one egg a day if he bought eggs instead of tobacco. A pack of cigarette cost approximately 15 Takas, which can buy four eggs or seven to eight medium sized bananas, said Islam. Another survey carried out in 2001 showed the poorest households in Bangladesh pay about 10 times as much for tobacco as for education.
In the countryside, over 10.5 million malnourished people could afford an adequate diet if money spent on buying tobacco were spent on food. Islam further pointed to an estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodlands that are cut down each year for tobacco farming. CAT official Amanullah Khan also expressed his concern that tobacco consumption and the number of smokers in Bangladesh was rising by over 10 percent annually, which was reflected in the increase in government revenues being collected from tobacco companies by similar percentages on a year to year basis in consequence of an upswing in the sale of tobacco products. Khan strongly urged the government to raise the duty on cigarettes in the upcoming national budget with a view to reducing the demand for and consumption of cigarettes.
He lamented that the tobacco companies were making good profits under state patronage in Bangladesh as they chalked up record exports of tobacco and cigarettes - a success story which the country could hardly be proud of as it had a negative and dark side to it. Khan felt with the enactment of a proposed tobacco control law half the battle would be won. He also called for a mass awareness programme.
Consequently, children suffer from severe malnutrition and various deficiency disorders. This led to repeated infections and increased child mortality and thus a vicious circle is established through misdirected expenditure on tobacco, Islam said. A study in Dhaka shows that a rickshaw-puller could feed each of his three children one egg a day if he bought eggs instead of tobacco. A pack of cigarette cost approximately 15 Takas, which can buy four eggs or seven to eight medium sized bananas, said Islam. Another survey carried out in 2001 showed the poorest households in Bangladesh pay about 10 times as much for tobacco as for education.
In the countryside, over 10.5 million malnourished people could afford an adequate diet if money spent on buying tobacco were spent on food. Islam further pointed to an estimated 200,000 hectares of forest and woodlands that are cut down each year for tobacco farming. CAT official Amanullah Khan also expressed his concern that tobacco consumption and the number of smokers in Bangladesh was rising by over 10 percent annually, which was reflected in the increase in government revenues being collected from tobacco companies by similar percentages on a year to year basis in consequence of an upswing in the sale of tobacco products. Khan strongly urged the government to raise the duty on cigarettes in the upcoming national budget with a view to reducing the demand for and consumption of cigarettes.
He lamented that the tobacco companies were making good profits under state patronage in Bangladesh as they chalked up record exports of tobacco and cigarettes - a success story which the country could hardly be proud of as it had a negative and dark side to it. Khan felt with the enactment of a proposed tobacco control law half the battle would be won. He also called for a mass awareness programme.