Anti-tobacco activists disappointed over failure to increase tax on tobacco products

Anti-Tobacco activists in Mysuru have expressed their disappointment over the failure of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget to either increase sin tax or a percentage increase in cess under National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD).

In a statement in Mysuru, Convenor of Anti-Tobacco Forum, Mysuru, Vasanthkumar Mysoremath regretted that the “tobacco industry was smiling while every eighth second a person was dying an untimely death due to non-communicable diseases (NCD) like cancer, lung diseases and heart attacks directly attributable to smoking and consuming poisonous tobacco products”.

He contended that India was a signatory to WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that suggested an increase in taxes to the extent of 75% of the retail prices of all tobacco products to deter their consumption.

“The current tax on cigarettes in the country is 52.7% while it is 22% on bidis and 63.8% on chewing tobacco”, he said. While pointing out that there are 245 million consumers of smoke and non-smoke tobacco products in India, Mr. Mysoremath said even if the Finance Minister had increased tax/duty at ₹1 per stick, millions of rupees would have accrued per day and bolstered the revenue that could have been used for schemes like de-addiction, health services and other social welfare schemes.

“But, unfortunately, the Finance Minister has neglected this golden opportunity”, he said referring to the absence of any mention of levy of sin tax in the Budget 2025-26. The burden on health services due to tobacco related diseases is increasing and “to wipe the tears of cancer patients, the Minister has reduced the cost of cancer drugs”, he observed.

He also regretted the absence of any mention of gradual reduction in cultivation of tobacco crop to contain “the unending deadly raw material supply to the tobacco industry that is making hay while no taxes are proposed to be levied on its products”.

Mr. Mysoremath has urged the Finance Minister to consider the observations of the anti-tobacco forum and propose an increase in the levy of taxes on tobacco products.