BANGLADESH
Around 1.5-2 million workers in the local bidi industry could become jobless if proposed taxes come into effect, said analysts, allowing multinational companies to completely take control of the market.
The analysts, who were attending a discussion titled “Discriminatory Tax Policy and Life of Bidi Workers” organized by the Research and Development Collective (RDC) at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka, also said that the taxation on tobacco for 2017-2018 was influenced by these multinationals.
RDC chairperson, Prof. Mesbah Kamal, said, “We are against tobacco but in favor of workers. The taxation policy is clearly against the local bidi industry and for multinational companies. So, if the industry is to be eliminated, the authorities must arrange alternative jobs for them.”
RDC general secretary, Zannat E. Ferdousi, said in her keynote speech that the price of one packet of bidi went up by Tk8 and low segment cigarettes by Tk4, while prices of high segment cigarettes were not increased at all. “This is actually helping the multinational cigarette companies capture the market and eliminate the local bidi industry,” she said.
She also said that cigarette-making is a mechanized industry, which employs only about 10,000 workers, while bidi is a labor-intensive industry and some 1.5-2 million people, especially poor women, are involved in the industry. “But the finance minister said the number of workers in the bidi industry has shrunk by 90%. The statement is absurd,” she said.