INCREASE ON VAT ON TOBACCO PRODUCTS TO DISCOURAGE SMOKING - SAYS HARSH VARDHAN UNIION MINISTER.

In his bid to discourage smoking among youths , Union health minister Harsh vardhan has urged states and union minister to imposed a value added tax or VAT of atleast 50 per cent on all tobacco products to make them less affordable. Increasing the price of tobacco products is the most effective way to make addicts quit smoking or chewing tobacco ,'Indian Dental Association (Karnataka branch) president M.L.V. Prabhuji said in a statement on Sunday.

Mr. Vardhan has recently wrote to Finance minister Arun Jaitley proposing an increase in tax on the retail price of cigarettes from 45 per cent to 60 per cent in the union budget . The proposal is to be presented in the parliament in july 10.   Citing a recent report which put the total economic cost attributable to all diseases caused by tobacco consumption at Rs. 1.04 lakh crore, Mr Vardhan stressed the need to discourage tobacco consumption for ‘reducing avoidable public expenditure’

In his letter to all chief ministers, the health minister has quoted RAJASTHAN as example where VAT on tobacco products stands at 60 per cent . Harsh vardhan quoted that 80 per cent of non- communicable diseases are caused by extensive  tobacco consumption. My question is this will really gonna work ?? will it reduce the tobacco consumption ??

Whenever when i ask my friends , who used to smoke,  why do you smoke ?? I will be getting a unified answers from all my friends . They used to say that smoking relieves them from getting STRESSED , BORED and some used to say that it became a habit . To all who says that in order to beat the BOREDOM i smoke, you are actually slipping down the unending crevasse of death .How you ask ? Here is what really smoking does to your health and eventually causes cancer , right from when you light the cigar. 

Your first drag:

1. Whether you light your cigarette using mach stick or lighter , the first puff is more dangerous . The smoke emmited from the match and cigar forms a strong cocktail that damge your mucous lining in your nose.

2. Apart from that the heat from the cigarette affects the skin on your face and most importantly around your nose and mouth. The heat causes your lips to darken, leads to wrinkles and the appearance of age spots. Another reason for darkening of a smokers lips is the fact that the tar in the cigarette tends to adhere to the lips, soon staining them.

3. Not to mention the constant pouting and sucking that one has to do in order to take a puff also leads to what is known as a smoker’s pout. Where when you pout you will see the appearance of fine lines around the lips – something that does not happen in non-smokers.

           

What the smoke does to the insides of your mouth:

4. When the smoke is inside your mouth, the tar starts to coat the enamel of your teeth, discolouring them.

5. The heat from the smoke also damages the cells in and around your mouth, and in some cases leading to a change in their DNA – causing mutations. Once  inside the mouth the tar and other chemicals affect all parts of your oral cavity.

6. The chemicals present in a cigarette are numerous and they form a coat your tongue, palate and the inside of your cheeks. It deadens your taste buds, hyper activates your salivary glands and eventually blocks them, leading to a lack of saliva in your mouth. That is also one of the reasons smokers need a drink of water after a smoke.

I will be really happy if this increase in price hike on tobacco products really works and reduce the consumption of tobacco products .