New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ruled Rajasthan government is facing an embarrassing situation. Its decision to slash taxes on dangerous tobacco products like cigarette and gutka has generated a lot of heat as the decision comes just weeks after the World Health Organisation (WHO) honoured Rajasthan government for being tough on tobacco products by imposing the highest rate of taxes on them.
Ironically, Rajasthan is the first state in India which had made tobacco users ineligible for government jobs. According to media reports, in an order passed on June 12, the state government reduced Value Added Tax (VAT) on "tobacco and its products excluding bidi" to 45 per cent, from the existing 65 per cent, saying it was "expedient to do so in public interest".
This decision has been widely criticised across India.
An analysis in Financial Express questions the rationale behind this bizarre claim that tax on tobacco products have slashed keeping the 'public interest' in mind. The hard hitting analysis said, "it is difficult to understand what public interest it serves in a country which witnesses 10 lakh deaths every year due to tobacco-related diseases. This is a bad example set by a state that is being seen as the number one state in terms of initiating reforms in critical areas like labour, land acquisition, financial inclusion and education to help people raise their living standards. If the Rajasthan government needs revenues, there are better ways to raise it than promoting the use of tobacco products – reducing taxes does that exactly. Instead of this, the state should invest its efforts in ensuring that it benefits from the relaxation in labour laws. Lowering taxes on tobacco products is out of sync with these reform initiatives and Rajasthan must reverse this decision fast".
Even as there is little clarity on how Rajasthan would implement its decision to bar tobacco consumers from government jobs without a legal backing, officials maintained that the move was just to keep people away from tobacco. The Department of Health and Family Welfare wrote to all departments to make tobacco users ineligible for government jobs in October 2014. New applicants will have to give an undertaking that they would not consume any form of tobacco reported 'The Hindu' almost a year ago.
Smoking in public places, including offices, is already banned except in specified areas under the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisements and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003. Violation of this Act invites monetary penalty.
Most of the states have banned the manufacturing and sale of harmful tobacco products like Gutka.
According to a report in PTI, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has condemned the BJP-led state government's decision to reduce tax on tobacco products saying it would be a "disastrous step". "Recently the state government has reduced the tax on tobacco products by 20-30 per cent, that was ridiculous," Gehlot said in a statement in Jaipur.
"It would be disastrous step playing with the health of people who were addict to tobacco as they would use it more," the senior Congress leader said.
He said it was surprising that every state was against the use of tobacco products but the BJP government in Rajasthan has announced reduction in tax on the same.
"According to the WHO, 10 lakh people die of tobacco-related diseases in India annually, and the state government was going to favour that death toll as it appeared with the move," Gehlot added.
According to some local experts many Gukta company owners are from Rajasthan and the government is trying to help them.
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