NGOs demand hike in tax on tobacco products
The civil society groups have urged the finance minister P Chidambaram to raise taxes on tobacco products in the coming budget. The reason, civil groups feel, is that it is the only way to curb the use of these lethal products and also provide the much-needed resources for funding education about the bad effects of tobacco. The groups have been lobbying with the government and political leaders for quite sometime and have stepped up their activities perceiving the budget as an opportunity for taking a hard knock at its use and abuse. To impress upon their point, 'Avinash society,' a constructive crusade against substance abuse in India, had recently met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and asked him to use his good offices to get the government into action. The society is of trie view that tobacco consumption is the single largest cause of preventable deaths in the country. It is estimated that around 10 lakh deaths in the country are caused due to tobacco consumption. The revenue from taxing tobacco products could be dedicated towards societal welfare initiatives, especially education.