By Syful Islam
DHAKA, May 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Bangladesh is set to impose its own carbon tax on fuel next month – despite the hugely climate-vulnerable country producing relatively tiny per capita emissions.
The tax is expected to be put in place on June 1 as part of the country’s annual budget and will be part of a larger bundle of “green” measures, Nojibur Rahman, chair of the National Board of Revenue, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a telephone interview.
Many businesses and environmental groups have welcomed the plan, saying that Bangladesh – one of the countries considered most threatened by climate change impacts – needs to make a strong statement as governments like that in the United States pull back from action on climate change.
The new tax may not make any significant contribution to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping average global temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, they said.
But “when a country pollutes, the other countries are also affected. So, we need to reduce carbon emission as much as possible and imposing a tax is only way to do it,” said Abdul Matlub Ahmad, outgoing president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
He said the tax would not only raise the price of using fossil fuels but the added income could help push more use of renewable energy.
“If the government wants to cut the import duty on environment-friendly renewable energy products, it needs to charge taxes on polluters,” he said in a telephone interview.
Bangladesh produces about 0.44 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person, much lower than the United States’ 16.4 tonnes, Australia’s 16.3 tonnes and Qatar’s whopping 40.5 tonnes, according to World Bank figures.
