Legislature’s needs you to have some bad habits

Yes, most of the tax & duty income for the governments to perform comes from substance, which cause cause ill health. Examples like tobacco and liquor. In this article, I might want to show how tobacco and alcohol business are the moneymaking machines of government.

Tobacco Usage

Over 120 million Indians smoke, and 10% of the world’s tobacco smokers live in India. India has the second largest group of smokers in the world after China. Almost a third of Indians 57% of all men and 11% of all women consume some form of tobacco and many use more than one type of tobacco product. Bidis are the most popular tobacco product used in India. Bidis account for nearly 85% of total smoked tobacco in India.

Government’s policy: “India’s high smoking rate causes alarming health and economic costs. One of the most effective ways to reduce tobacco use in India is to raise the price of tobacco products through excise tax increases”

This is the most absurd policy I ever hear in my life. The policy sounds like, obesity can be controlled by increasing the tax on foods, or malnutrition can be managed by reducing the tax on food. The Governments trick us with this policy statement, Increase the cost of product so that people will stop the usage. The policy sounds good and practical in periphery, but if you analyze a little bit more, you can find the foolishness in the policy. The budget news always say, “Smoking is going to pinch harder with prices of cigarettes likely to go up by 8-9% with the government increasing taxes on cigarettes for successive years”

The fact is “It is very tough to get rid of bad habits,” especially the usage of tobacco. You need professional help in getting rid of smoking habits. So common people do not quit their smoking habits, rather pay more to buy tobacco products. The availability of cigarette or beedi in every nook and corner (small petty shops) makes this bad habit grow. Quitting a bad habits need courage and an urge. In short, the government is looting the person with smoking habit to pay more and at the root level; the family will be suffering because of the shortage in funds to run the family.

Cigarettes were 175 per cent more affordable in 2011 than in 1990, and tobacco has become 5 per cent more affordable in India since 2008, according to the WHO, all because real incomes have been growing at a faster clip than taxes on cigarettes. Despite a mere 11% share of consumption, Government collects 85% of its total tobacco revenue from legal cigarettes. The reason for this distorted pattern of revenue collections is that cigarettes are subjected to high and discriminatory rates of taxation, as compared to other tobacco products.

"Why Don't we Ban consumer usage of Tobacco" 

Effectiveness of Government Policy