: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has already presented the current year’s budget on February 1. In this situation, he has proposed to increase the duty on cigarettes in this budget. As a result, the price of cigarettes is going to increase. However, experts are of the opinion that overall the decision is likely to have very little impact on cigarette prices. Basically, the prices of different types of cigarettes from different companies may increase. In that case, the amount of increase can be only 7 to 12 paise.
In such a scenario, cigarette manufacturing companies are also expected to be less affected by the shock of this small price increase. That is, according to experts, there will not be much impact on the profit margins of the companies. Besides, they assume that the situation will continue in the case of smokers as well. It is pertinent to mention that in the Budget, a 16 percent tax hike has been proposed in connection with the Union Finance Minister’s proposal to increase the duty on cigarettes.
Meanwhile, the price of various types of cigarettes may increase by 7 to 12 paisa even after such tax increase. In this case, according to experts, this growth rate will have a less than one percent impact on gross profit. It will not even affect the tax credit of companies. In other words, this rate of increase in duty will not have any significant effect on the price of cigarettes.
From when the new prices will be effective: According to the statistics, details about how the price of cigarettes will increase in view of the recent budget announcement have come to the fore. Basically, the duty on 1,000 sticks of cigarettes with a filter length of more than 70 mm but less than 75 mm is increased from Tk 545 to Tk 630. Besides, the duty on all cigarettes with filter length greater than 65 mm but less than 70 mm is increased from Tk 440 to Tk 510 per 1,000 sticks. In this situation, it is said that this new price may be effective from April 1.
Duty increased on certain items: In this context, let us inform that in this year’s budget, besides increasing the duty on cigarettes, the tax on other goods has also been increased. These include imported accessories, kitchen chimneys and imitation jewelery and products such as naphtha and silver bars.