How often does an industry which produces and sells goods, requests a government to increase the taxes on their own products? One particular group in India is doing that, pleading the case at a time when India’s biggest tax reform, the GST, is shaping up.
They are hoping they don’t miss the bus and that the government does something this time around to end their cycle of poverty, ill health and yes, deaths.
For years, the bidi has been modelled as a ‘poor man’s pleasure’.
‘It does have some harmful effects but life is tough for the poor already; why snatch away their one indulgence’ – unsubstantiated arguments such as these are often made by the bidi industry in India.
Unfortunately, these are arguments that have been accepted by the governments in India over the years. And it’s costing the country over a million tobacco-related deaths each year. Almost two-thirds of tobacco consumers in India consume bidis.