Breaking New Grounds in Tobacco Control - Voluntary Health ...

553 billion bidis were consumed in India
in 2008-09.
Key Policy Implications
• The public health goals of reducing
smoking by raising retail prices through
taxes will be defeated in the absence
of rigorous estimates as it is crucial in
achieving the twin goals of reducing
the public health impact of tobacco
use, and improving tax collection while
reducing the illicit trade of bidi.
• As a first step, price correction of
tendu leaves must be made (tendu leaf
prices have remained virtually stagnant
since 1976). Currently, the arbitrary
nature of fixing tendu price provides
virtually no gain for forest dwelling or
tribal economies. The Haque Committee
Research 4
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appointed by the Ministry of Panchayati
Raj in August 2010 has recommended a
set of mechanisms to determine the minimum
support price for tendu leaves.
Because of the significant size of the
bidi and tendu leaf trade and their
profound impact on local communities,
it is important that they are closely
monitored through a central authority.
All exemptions on bidi manufacturing
should be removed. Current exemption
on bidi producers who produce less than
two million bidis must be removed on
priority, and the distinction between
machine-made and handmade bidis
must be removed so as to reduce illicit
and unpaid bidi trade. This will correct
the existing distortions further and
improve collections.
Counting 15 Million More Poor in India, Thanks to Tobacco
Rijo M John, Hai-Yen Sung, Wendy B Max, Hana Ross, Tobacco Control, September 2011,
Volume 20, Issue 5, pp 349-352
Background
Over 300 million people in India live in
poverty and the poor represent 28.3%
and 25.7% of the rural and the urban
population, respectively. Many tobaccoconsuming
families live below or just above
the poverty line, and owing to their tobacco
consumption, the resources available to
them for other goods and services are on
par with families that have lower total
expenditure but do not consume tobacco.
The objective of the study is to quantify
the impact of tobacco use and the related
medical expenditure on poverty in India.
Data and Methodology
•
The 2004 National Sample Survey,
a nationally representative survey
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of Indian households, was used to
estimate the true level of poverty.
Sample data is used from NSS 2004-
2005 on consumer expenditure,
employment and unemployment for
124, 644 households (79, 298 living in
rural areas and 45, 346 living in urban
areas).
Tobacco expenditure and associated
medical expenditure attributable to
tobacco use were subtracted from
the household monthly consumption
expenditure in order to derive an
appropriate measure of household
disposable income.
Major Findings
•
Tobacco consuming households spend
2.3% of their monthly expenditure on
n 61
January - March & April - June 2012