Poster Presentation

Tobacco Tax Structure and its Effects on Cigarette Smoking Behavior for a Decade in India- A Review

Dr.I.Meignana Arumugham, Professor and Head Department of Public Health Dentistry

Saveetha Dental College, SIMATS, Chennai,Tamil Nadu, India

Introduction: 

A cost-effective planning and evaluation of control measures is important to have information on tobacco use status in the country. Tobacco taxation, passed on to consumers in the form of higher cigarette prices, has been recognized as one of the most effective population-based strategies for decreasing smoking and its adverse health consequences. Therefore, the aim of the present review is to examine the smoking prevalence and relate it to the tax structure. The findings of this review will help in designing policies to control tobacco use.

Materials and method:

Data on prevalence and patterns of cigarette consumption was obtained from Global Adult Tobacco Surveys (GATS I and II), WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, Trends in bidi and cigarette smoking in India from 1998 to 2015, by age, gender and education and Smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption in 187 countries, 1980-2012.Then the cigarette tax details has been collected from 2009- 2017 in India.

Results: 

Estimates from GATS I and II results show a six percentage decline in the consumption of cigarettes due to rise in prices. The number of tobacco users has reduced by about 81 lakh.

Discussion:

Tobacco taxation can restraint tobacco-attributable mortality and morbidity, a sharp reduction in tobacco consumption, and subsequently deaths has not occurred yet.  The increasing availability due to high rise in income and illegal practices adopted by the manufacturers act as a deterrent to the effective implementation of fiscal policy

Conclusion:

Higher taxes alone will not solve all the problems. Along with tax increase other strategies of tobacco control has to be implemented for the complete prevention of tobacco use.

Keywords :Tobacco, taxation, cigarette, basic excise duty, additional excise duty, prevalence

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