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

will help discourage tobacco consumption
to a significant extent, said Dr Sanjay
Panda, surgeon, head and neck oncology,
at the Panda Curie Centre and Research
Institute.
Taxes on tobacco products in India are
well below the World Bank recommended
rates of around 65 to 80 per cent of retail
rates. With low tax rates, products are
becoming increasingly affordable and thus
leading to more than a million deaths
in the country annually due to tobaccorelated
diseases.
Raising tax is not burdening consumer but
saving lakhs of lives by decreasing tobacco
consumption, Hemlata Cancer Research
Institute Chairman and Managing Director,
Dr AK Rath stated.
Source: New Indian Express, Odisha, 12 December, 2011
LIC’s tobacco stain shows
The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)
invested more than Rs 3,600 crore in the
year 2010 - 11 in the tobacco industry,
anti-tobacco activists and cancer specialists
said, describing the investments as ironical
and unethical.
Figures obtained through the right to
information route by a consortium of
activists and doctors show that in 2010-11,
LIC had invested in shares of ITC and VST
Industries and in debentures of Dharampal
Satyapal Ltd, which makes chewable
tobacco products.
The LIC investment in ITC had a book value
of more than Rs 3,561 crore, while its
investment in VST Industries was about Rs
15 lakh, according to information released
by the company. It also invested Rs 50
crore in Dharampal Satyapal.
For the Millions
n 70
“It’s ironic that LIC is investing in an
industry that contributes to ill-health
and death, and an industry that some
arms of the government are trying to
discourage,” said Pankaj Chaturvedi,
associate professor at the Tata Memorial
Hospital, Mumbai.
“The public should know where LIC is
investing its funds,” Chaturvedi told The
Telegraph. “The government has enforced
the ban on public smoking and it has
also outlined steps to phase out tobacco
cultivation in the coming years.”
The RTI application had been filed by a
consortium called Voice of Tobacco Victims,
mainly representing patients with cancer.
LIC officials were not immediately available
to explain its policy of investing in the
tobacco industry.
The number of shares held by LIC in ITC
jumped from about 522,089,903 on March
31, 2010, to 995,891,658 on March 31,
2011, according to the company’s response
to the RTI query.
Tata Memorial doctors said the RTI response
from LIC suggested it was not charging
extra premium on all tobacco users. “It
is ridiculous.… LIC invests in tobacco,
it doesn’t charge higher premium from
addicts, but they may reject the claims
of addicts,” Surendra Shastri, head of
preventive oncology at Tata Memorial, said
in a statement.
In response to the RTI query on LIC’s
policy on insurance for tobacco users,
the company said the risk assessment
for consumption of tobacco would take
into consideration multiple health factors
ranging from quantity and type of tobacco
to health conditions of the applicant.