Questioning Punjab Government’s commitment of “fighting against cancer”, civil society representatives on Monday criticised its decision to roll back taxes on cigarettes from 55 per cent to 22 per cent.
Days after the Punjab Government’s move to rollback its decision of increasing taxes on the cigarettes, the civil society organisation Voice of Tobacco Victims on Monday blamed it for the “flourishing smuggling” as a result of its “weak enforcement”.
Suggesting other ways to tackle the issue instead of decreasing the VAT, the organisation maintained that laws need to be enforced followed by strict actions against the violators.
Neighbouring States like Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir have increased VAT on tobacco products, and Bihar Government too has proposed to increase VAT to 57 per cent this year, pointed Professor of Surgical Oncology at Tata Memorial Hospital Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi. He said that when prices of all commodities were going over the roof, “the lowering of tobacco prices speak volumes about the State Government's commitment towards the health of Punjabis and fight against cancer”.
He said: “Smuggling is flourishing due to weak enforcement and strict actions can be taken to tackle the issue instead of decreasing the VAT.”
Citing figures, Dr Chaturvedi said that according to Global Adult Tobacco Survey of 2010, nearly 24 lakh of the adult population, including 15 years and above, of Punjab consumes tobacco product in some form or the other.
As per the John Hopkins experts, from these 24 lakh, nearly nine lakh Punjabis will die prematurely due to serious illnesses such as cancer, heart diseases, he added.
Organisation’s project director Ashima Sarin said that at the moment, “Punjab is a State of religious values where people could be discouraged to consume tobacco… Children are the major targets of the tobacco industry. Slowly and gradually the use of tobacco is reaching endemic level with over one million people annually die due to tobacco-related diseases in the country.” Amritsar-based cancer surgeon Dr Prahlad Duggal suggested that tobacco taxation is a very powerful strategy to reduce consumption. “Triple the taxes, double the revenue, and halve the consumption will be a better decision,” he added.
Only recently, the Punjab Cabinet, “to check the smuggling of cigarettes in the State from other parts of the country”, decided to restore tax on cigarettes from recently hiked 50 per cent to 20.5 per cent plus 10 per cent surcharge.
“This would help in checking sale of smuggled cigarettes, as VAT on cigarettes in adjoining states was around 20 per cent. It has been observed that increase in VAT has not resulted into less sale but such sales levels met through smuggled cigarettes,” the Government argued. For improving the health of the state finances, Punjab Government in its State budget had increased VAT on cigarettes and other tobacco products from 20.5 to 55 per cent maintaining that “consumption of tobacco products is the main cause of life threatening diseases and surveys have indicated that an increase of 10 per cent on tax on these items leads to decline in consumption by four to eight per cent”.