The health ministry has prepared a draft to amend the Smoking and Using of Tobacco Products (Control) Act which would ban e-cigarettes and oral nicotine products, reports The Business Standard.

E-cigarettes have become more popular in Bangladesh over the past few years and are currently not covered by the law, which prompted the new draft to amend the Smoking and Using of Tobacco Products (Control) Act that was last amended in 2013. The draft proposes that anyone found using e-cigarettes be fined BDT 5,000 (USD 52.88) and would ban the production, import, export, storage, sale and transportation of e-cigarettes or their parts, according to The Business Standard. The punishment for violations of the new law would be a maximum of 6 months in prison or a fine of up to BDT 200,000 (USD 2,115) for first time offenders with the punishment doubling with each new offence.
The draft also includes changes for existing tobacco products and requires no sweets, spices, perfumes, addictive products, or any other mixture to be added to tobacco products. Provisions have also been made in the draft to make sure tobacco products are not sold within 100 metres of educational institutions, hospitals or children’s parks. Furthermore, it requires vendors to obtain a licence from a local government body in order to legally sell tobacco and tobacco products. Instead of the current 50 per cent, health warnings and graphic images would have to cover 90 per cent of the packaging or all tobacco products.
"If it is passed and implemented effectively in the shortest possible time, it will be possible to build a tobacco-free Bangladesh by 2040 as announced by the prime minister," said ABM Jubayer, executive director of anti-tobacco organisation Progga.
According to The Business Standard, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has recently sent copies of the draft to different stakeholders including the ministries concerned with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) seeking opinions on the draft by 14 July.