Indian Experts: Low Tobacco Tax Kills Millions

Source from:  The Times of India 05/23/2014

In the run-up to the World No Tobacco Day, health experts want local governments to increase the taxes on tobacco products to deter people from consuming them.

The World Health Organization observes May 31 as World No Tobacco Day every year; this year's theme is "raise taxes on tobacco". Doctors of Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel and NGOs such as Healis-Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health on Thursday underlined the need to increase the present level of tobacco taxes.

"The present low taxes serve as an incentive for tobacco users," said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi of Tata Memorial Hospital, who has been campaigning against tobacco products. "Tobacco kills every third user prematurely through cancer, heart and lung diseases," added.

Studies carried out in western countries have shown that raising taxes not only keep the tobacco habit in check, it also doubles the government's revenues. Tata Memorial's director Dr A D'Cruz said countries like France and South Africa had halved tobacco consumption in 15 years by hiking taxes. Enditem