Bogura District Bidi Workers Union formed a human chain and encirclement program in response to a five-point demand including the withdrawal of advance income tax in the next budget. They organized this event in front of the District’s Customs, Excise, and VAT office at 11 am on Thursday.

Their demands are during Bangabandhu’s era, there was no tax on bidi industry, so the bidi workers demanded withdrawal of bidi duty, withdrawal of advance income tax, stoppage of foreign companies’ low level cigarettes and increase in wages of workers engaged in bidi industry and Customs authorities should take strict action to stop fake bidis from being marketed.

At the end of the human chain, the workers presented a memorandum containing five-point demands to the Chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR) through the Assistant Commissioner of Bogura Customs, Excise, and VAT office.

The bidi workers in the human chain said that the bidi industry is an ancient labor intensive industry of the country. The door of this industry was opened after independence by the hands of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He declared this labor intensive industry duty free. 18 lakh poor, abandoned by husbands, physically challenged workers from all over the country including Bogura the District’s earn their living by working in bidi factories. In order to reduce the plight of bidi workers and to protect their work, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in the budget speech of the Great National Assembly that the tax on bidi should be reduced and the tax on cigarettes should be increased a little more. Therefore, I am calling for the withdrawal of customs duty from the bidi industry during the tenure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as during Bangabandhu. At the same time, we demand to withdraw the advance income tax from this industry as it is dependent on indigenous workers.

Bidi Workers Also said that the significance of the bidi industry to the nation’s economy is enormous. This historic, labor-intensive industry generates enormous amounts of annual money. However, some unscrupulous bidi merchants have dodged billions of dollars in income by selling counterfeit bidi and bidi with counterfeit brand rolls in an effort to ruin the bidi business. In the sake of the country’s growth, advancement, and actual bidi owners, the customs authorities should take the necessary steps to halt unlawful bidi manufacturers and counterfeit bidi. They should be arrested and punished together.

Presidents of Bangladesh Bidi Sramik Federation Amin Uddin BSc, Vice President Nazim Uddin, Lutfor Rahman, Joint Secretary Abdul Gofur, Abul Hasnat Lavlu, Anower Hossain, organizing secretary Shamim Islam, Shohel Rana among others, spoke in the function while the General Secretary Harik Hossain moderated it.