Activists criticise move to exempt tobacco from entry tax
By IANSThursday, June 3, 2010
PATNA - Activists working for anti-tobacco awareness Thursday criticised the Bihar government’s decision not to levy entry tax on tobacco.
In Bihar, tobacco and bidi (leaf rolled cigarettes) leaves are brought mostly from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
A day after Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi Wednesday issued a notification to exempt tobacco from entry tax, Pranay Lal, an activist, said that the state government’s decision will only promote use of tobacco in Bihar.
Dhananjay Singh, another activist, said the move will not benefit millions of bidi workers in the state but “benefit businessmen in the bidi industry”.
Lal told IANS over telephone that in order to get a special package in the form of grants and aids from the central government, the Bihar government should reduce the overall budget deficit. Increasing tax on tobacco products can be a useful tool in achieving that, he said.
“The condition of bidi workers cannot be an excuse to leave tobacco products out of the VAT ambit as we all know that tobacco is the largest cause of deaths in India,” Lal said.
Modi, also the finance minister, justified the government’s decision saying that the move would incur an annual loss of Rs.1.28 crore to the state exchequer but would benefit more than 3.5 million bidi workers.
Modi said that due to the high cost of production, the bidi industry has virtually collapsed in Bihar and shifted to West Bengal. It has rendered thousands of bidi workers jobless.
