The Big Losers in India''s Budget: Cigarette Smokers

Source from:  Bloomberg 03/03/2015

Indian governments can switch from the Gandhi family's Congress Party to the Hindu nationalists' Bharatiya Janata Party, but in the world's largest democracy, politicians of all stripes seem to agree on at least one thing: Smokers need to keep paying more to light up. Both the previous, Congress-led government and the BJP administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have raised excise taxes on cigarettes. Prices have more than doubled since 2010.

The latest move against smokers came on Saturday, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in the annual budget speech a plan to increase taxes between 15 percent and 25 percent. The Modi government, which has been in power only since last May, has been particularly aggressive in going after the country's cigarette makers. Following an earlier increase in its budget for 2014-15, Modi has now increased taxes for cigarettes by a combined 38 percent in less than a year.

One sign India still has work to do in overhauling its economy: The biggest loser from its latest budget is a tobacco company. Enditem