Death Marketing-1

Tobacco Companies Investing in Economic Zones

Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) has recently inked a deal with Prime Leaf Processing Company Ltd which is going to establish factories in the country's EPZs. As per the rules, the company, like any investing company at EPZs, would enjoy a long list of financial and other incentives which includes but is not limited to: 7-year long tax holiday, duty-free import of raw materials and machineries, and also duty-free export of processed products. So evidently, allowing tobacco companies to establish factories at EPZs means that the government is directly incentivizing tobacco trade, which goes against Bangladesh's developmental vision and constitutes a breach of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).