Consumer Activists, bidi workers and health activists urge Government to tax bidis at 28% to save precious lives
Chandigarh ,, 30 May 2017 :
Citizen Awareness Group Chandigarh and Consumer Voice New Delhi in association with Chandigarh Press Club will organise a walk and a seminar to aware the general public regarding the tobacoo. The walk will be held tomorrow at 9 am and the seminar will be at 3 pm.
Taxing bidis below 28% under GST will cause a sharp increase in bidi consumption and further aggravate the public health and economic burden caused by bidi usein India. This chilling fact has been brought to light through economic data and modeling,there by appeals to the Government to act boldly at the forthcoming 3rdJune GST Council meeting to avoid such an adverse health outcome.
The data which simulates economic scenarios depending on how bidis would eventually be taxed in the impending GST regime, points to a dramatic increase in bidi use if public health concerns are ignored at the next crucial meetingof the GST council and bidis are taxed at arate lower than 28%.
The scenarios, modelled by professional economists, draw a direct linkage between the level of taxation of bidis and the extent of consumption.The most direct and effective method for reducing bidi consumption is to increase its price through tax increases. Given this overarching principle, the data scenario infers that if the Government settles for a 18% GST rate, there will actually be an upswing in consumption by 1.25%, considered to be massive in volume terms while if a 28% slab is slotted for bidis, consumption will actually dip by 0.77% which is also a substantial swing.Interestingly, if excise burden is also applied over and top of the GST incidence, then consumption further dips by a bit over 1 full percentage point, a huge behaviourial change, given the bidi market in India runs into billions.
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