India: Increase VAT on All Tobacco Forms in State, Urge Maharashtra Activists

Source from:  fnbnews.com 03/12/2013

Anti-tobacco campaigners in Maharashtra have demanded that the state government hike the value-added tax (VAT) levied on all forms of tobacco. Currently, the rate of VAT on tobacco in the state is 20 per cent. Beedies, on which the earlier rate of VAT levied was 7.5 per cent, now enjoy a tax rollback in the state, as a result of which the current rate of VAT is five per cent.

The activists' demand followed reports that the World Health Organisation (WHO) was considering a global excise tax on cigarettes up to 70 per cent and recent VAT hikes on tobacco products in Rajasthan (from 50 per cent to 60 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (from 30 per cent to 40 per cent).

Devika Chaddha, director, Salaam Bombay Foundation, said, "As you can see, most of the children in cities are addicted to tobacco. The most common form of tobacco consumption is chewing tobacco. The Maharashtra government must be proactive and increase VAT on all tobacco products in the state."

Pankaj Chaturvedi, oncologist, Tata Memorial Hospital, and member, Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), said, "We met Maharashtra's deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar recently and asked him to increase the VAT on all tobacco products in the state."

"We have also written letters to the finance ministers of various states, urging them to include not only cigarettes (as was announced in the Union Budget recently), but also other forms of tobacco, including beedies - the biggest and cheapest killers – under the tax purview. The taxation of cigarettes is futile, as only five per cent of the smoking population smokes them," he informed. Enditem