Demand to increase tax on tobacco products
Raipur. On the eve of National Youth Day, several youth organizations have appealed to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister to increase taxes on all tobacco products in the upcoming budget for 2024-25. In their appeal to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister, these people are urging to increase the excise duty on all tobacco products. This appeal has come on the eve of National Youth Day 2024. Its theme is “It’s All in the Mind”, which calls for enabling a healthy and addiction-free growing ecosystem for the youth of the country. It is possible to create a strong nation away from addictions by making tobacco products unobtainable in the country and out of reach of the youth.
According to youth groups, increasing excise duty on all tobacco products could be a very effective policy measure to meet the urgent need of increasing revenue by the central government. This will be a successful proposal to generate revenue and reduce tobacco use and related diseases.
Renowned badminton player and Olympian, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri PV Sindhu said, “Tobacco use not only harms our health but it also threatens the health of our friends and family. Additionally, tobacco users also have a higher risk of developing serious cases of cancer. I urged the youth of India to be free from tobacco dependence and stay healthy.”
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health presented a relevant and comprehensive report on cancer care planning and management, in which it conducted a detailed study of the causes of cancer in India and expressed concern that in India, “the majority of deaths are due to oral cancer, After that it goes to lung, esophagus and stomach cancer.” It also said that tobacco use is one of the major risk factors associated with cancer. In view of these worrying comments, the Committee notes that the prices of tobacco products in India are among the lowest and there is a need to increase taxes on tobacco products. The committee accordingly recommends the government to increase taxes on tobacco and use the additional revenue received for cancer prevention and awareness.
Preeti, a student of MDD Bal Bhavan School, shared her personal experience of how tobacco addiction took away her father. She said, “Tobacco addiction took away my father when I was 12 years old. I understand the pain of losing a loved one to tobacco. Tobacco should be made so inaccessible (expensive) that no one loses their family or loved ones due to addiction caused by the increased accessibility of tobacco products. Increase in taxes on tobacco products will make these deadly products less affordable and will generate adequate revenue for the government.
Increasing taxes on tobacco products is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use and save lives. In India, tobacco taxes are well below the rates that typically exist in countries with effective tobacco control policies, making tobacco products very cheap and affordable. All tobacco products in India are taxed. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), increasing the price of tobacco products through tax increases is the most effective policy to reduce tobacco use. Higher tobacco prices reduce affordability, encourage quitting among users, deter initiation among non-users, and reduce intake among persistent users. WHO recommends that the share of excise duty for tobacco products should be increased to 75% of the retail price.
Sumit, a Class 10 student, said, “To discourage the use of tobacco products, we have used many devices in the past. However, all of these have not led to any major changes in usage. “The last resort left to us is to increase taxes on tobacco so that these products become out of reach of the youth who can afford to buy them with their own pockets.”
India has the second largest number of tobacco users in the world (268 million). About 27% of cancers in India are caused by tobacco. The recent Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-2019) shows that almost every fifth student aged 13-15 years is using some form of tobacco. Furthermore, on an average, children in India start using tobacco before the age of 10 years. The total direct and indirect cost of diseases caused by tobacco use was Rs 182,000 crore, which is about 1.8% of India’s GDP.
