Jawed Khurshid

The World No Tobacco Day 2014 will come and pass away as silently as the afternoon breeze on May 31. With pledges by a few celebs to bid adieu to smoking –   providing glam quotient to the show, nothing spectacular is going to happen.

Many will resolve to quit smoking on this day while others will hold seminars and symposiums to pontificate on the flip-side of smoking but the real issue – increasing taxation on tobacco and their products will seldom be discussed.

“The ‘economic embargo’ on tobacco and its products will gradually stifle its sale among the middle and lower middle classes – the largest consumers of cigarette, bidi, chewing tobacco products, gutkas and many more related products. Though gutkas are lawfully ‘banned’ in Maharashtra but it is freely available in the market,” said Manmohan Singh, a garment businessman in city’s central suburb, Dadar.

“It’s one of the largest revenue generators for the government, next only to the petroleum and arms industry. Will the government stem such lucrative deal by imposing high levies on its products?” Singh asked.   

Dr Chaturvedi, Head and Neck Cancer surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) said, “It is the single most preventable cause of death globally and currently responsible for 10% of adult deaths worldwide.”

“Tobacco kills nearly 6 million people every year. More than five million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while over 600,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke,” he stressed on the harsher law to arrest smoking.

Dr Chaturvedi, too, advocated higher taxation and stringent laws on tobacco to bring down its sale.