Thank you for smoking: 20% VAT too less

RANCHI: Lower tax on tobacco in the state is one of the major reasons behind high consumption of cigarettes or gutka as a study by the World Health Organization says a minimum of 65% Value Added Tax (VAT), if imposed, helps in reducing consumption rate.
Jharkhand - 50.1 per cent of the population in the state consume tobacco in all forms, according to a Global Adult Tobacco survey in 2009-10 - imposes 20% VAT on tobacco, which is much less than what is required to check tobacco consumption.
Now the question is whether the state government is aware of taxation as one of the measures to reduce tobacco consumption.
Raising taxes on tobacco products has proved effective globally. A World Bank Study, 'Curbing the epidemic: Government and economics of tobacco control', shows that a 10% rise in tobacco tax could lower tobacco consumption by 4% in high income countries and 8% in low and middle income countries.
In 2004, the Government of India ratified the WHO framework convention on tobacco control, which enlists key strategies in reduction of demand and supply of tobacco. Some of the measures include price and tax.
Rajiv Kumar, state consultant, National Tobacco Control programme (NTCP), said some states like Rajasthan have recently followed the taxation measure to reduce tobacco consumption.
"Rajasthan has raised the VAT on tobacco from 50 per cent to 65 per cent having population of tobacco consumers 32.3 per cent, thus following the WHO guidelines of 65 per cent.
Jammu and Kashmir is another state which has raised the VAT from 30 per cent to 40 per cent. So Jharkhand state needs to be aware of raising tax with half of the population consuming tobacco," said Kumar.
Various studies show that 50 per cent of cancers in men and 20% in women are caused by the use of tobacco. The majority of cardio vascular and lung diseases are directly attributable to tobacco consumption.
So in today's time tobacco has become a major health challenge in front of the government with 275million people consuming different tobacco products in the country. In the wake of more diseases due to tobacco consumption which indirectly leads more health cost burden.
"The situation is relevant in our country as it is facing the burden of non communicable diseases for which tobacco is the major risk factor. If we view our state's situation the health institutions are not well equipped to handle such cases," said Kumar.
"The cancer unit in the super specialty at Rajendra instate of RIMS is yet to start and it's just one such super specialty in the state. There are lesser number of oncologists in the country as well the state. So the situation is quite alarming and the state governments need to be aware and try to raise the VAT to reduce the consumption of tobacco," he added.