Cigarettes cannot be sold at a price higher than the maximum retail price (MRP) mentioned on the cigarette packet.NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Munim has directed the tobacco companies to sell cigarettes as per MRP by giving appropriate commissions to retailers.
He gave these instructions in a pre-budget meeting with local and foreign cigarette and bidi companies at the Revenue Building in Agargaon last Tuesday (March 5, 2024) afternoon.
Bidi companies have to pay advance money to buy bandrolls, but cigarette companies don’t have to pay advance money to buy bandrolls. The Bidi Industry Owners Association demanded to remove this discrimination. In the meeting, the managing director of the British American Tobacco Company Bangladesh demanded a ban on fake and smuggled cigarettes.
Meanwhile, the NBR chairman has directed the sale of cigarettes at the highest retail price to ensure revenue collection. He said that cigarettes cannot be sold at arbitrary prices as before.
He also said that there is no need to import or export tobacco leaves. Try to export cigarettes outside the country. Work out how to increase low-tier cigarette exports, especially in African countries.
Incidentally, multinational cigarette companies in Bangladesh have been selling cigarettes at prices higher than the maximum retail price mentioned on the packet for a long time. In this way, they have been evading more than 5000 crores of revenue annually. In view of that, NBR has decided to be strict.
