Bidis to be phased out

Bangladesh’s Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith has vowed to phase out bidis and cheap cigarettes, which he says make up 80 percent of the country’s tobacco-products market, according to a bdnews24.com story.

“We have decided along with some of the bidiwalas [the owners of bidi factories] that bidi will be out of Bangladesh,” he told reporters after a meeting with representatives of tobacco companies at his office on Sunday.

In answer to a question, Muhith said the departure of bidis from the market would not affect government revenues significantly.

The announcement seems to have been made possible partly because pressure from politicians seeking the retention of the bidi industry had eased this year. “I received a number of letters in this regard last year,” Muhith said. “I’ve got only two to four this year.”

It seems also to be partly about accepting the inevitable. The News24 report said that market share analysis of low-segment cigarettes for the past few years suggested that domestic cigarette manufacturers were gradually losing their share of the market to multinational companies.

If this trend continued for another two years, the domestic companies would be eliminated from the market, Muhith said.

The brands marketed by multinational companies in the low segment were the top and popular brands in other countries. This had created uneven competition in the market.