Tobacco in public interest? Rajasthan govt thinks so

VAT on tobacco products excluding bidi was reduced by around 20% last Friday

The term public interest has been redefined with the Rajasthan government slashing taxes on tobacco products like cigarettes and gutkha ostensibly in “public interest”.

VAT on tobacco products excluding bidi  was reduced by 20 percentage. It was 65% earlier and has been brought down to 45% as per the orders given on Friday.

This move by the Rajasthan government just months after it received the World No Tobacco Day award from the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) has attracted criticism from various sections. 

“The high tax was getting the state government Rs 750 crore in revenues and was curbing consumption too. And the government itself had admitted in the Assembly, in March, that the expenditure on curing tobacco-related aliments — Rs 1,160 crore — was much higher,” said Satyen Chaturvedi, representative of the Rajasthan Voluntary Health Association in a report carried out by The Indian Express.

The opposition lashed out on the Vasundhara Raje government for this decision accusing it of "playing with the health of the people of Rajasthan".

A report carried out by Rajasthan Patrika claims that this decision will reduce revenue collection by Rs 100 crore and increase expenses on health care by Rs 200 crore.

India is a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control since 2005 which asks countries to take certain measures to restrict and discourge smoking. This step by the Rajasthan government stands in complete contradiction with the efforts being put in collabration with WHO.

“High VAT does not mean low consumption, otherwise tobacco use would vary across states based on VAT. The government is committed to curbing tobacco use and we are doing it through various campaigns,” said Rajendra Rathore, the state's Health minister, defending the decision of the state govt.