KOCHI: It’s all about the choice between death and survival. Literally. As many as 9,000 people die every year in Kerala due to beedi-related diseases. But 5,000 small scale workers are dependent on the industry to earn their bread.
So, should we let 9,000 persons die every year to protect 5,000 workers? The question is posed by oncologists and anti-tobacco activists to the Kerala Government as Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac and his team prepare to present the state’s views on various tax slabs proposed under the Goods and Services Tax in Delhi on May 17-18.
GST is proposed to be implemented under four slabs. Cigarettes, pan masala, luxury cars and aerated drinks - Pepsi, Coke, etc - come under demerit goods having a tax slab of 28 percent-plus cess. But moves are afoot to put beedi under a lower tax slab of 18 percent.
“There are only about 5,000 beedi workers in Kerala. It will cost only about Rs 200-300 crore to rehabilitate them,” said oncologist P G Balagopal, in charge of the OP section, Cochin Cancer Centre.
While the revenue from the tobacco sales for the state is about Rs 600 crore, the government spends about Rs 1,514 crore on tobacco-related diseases etc per year, according Balagopal who is also the patron of the Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV), Kerala chapter.
Balagopal said the move to put beedis under the lower tax slab of 18 percent would send a wrong message as beedis are equally damaging for its consumers. “Higher tax will deter beedi smoking and would send the message beedis are equally damaging to the health just like cigarettes,” he said.
Sanjay Seth, trustee and Chief of Operations of Sambandh Health Foundation, a Delhi-based anti-tobacco NGO, said there’s a misconception beedi industry is in the unorganised sector, and employ a large number of people. “The beedi sector is a ‘well-organised unorganised sector’.
Beedi barons, many of them politicians and MLAs, control the industry. Ninety percent of the workforce are women and children who earn only a pittance, even lower than MNREGA wages,” said Seth.
As per the statistics, 32,000 people die every year due to tobacco related diseases in Kerala - 19,000 (cigarettes), 9,000 (beedis) and 4,000 (other tobacco products such as paan). “We hope the Kerala Government under Finance Minister Thomas Isaac will make a strong case for putting beedis in the top tax bracket at the next GST council meeting in Delhi,” he told ‘Express’.