Goa also plans to ban gutkha
Sandesh Prabhudesai
25 July 2002
Following Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu,
Goa is also now planning to ban consumption of gutkha
in the tourist state.
The tiny coastal state has already
banned smoking and chewing of any tobacco product in
public places as well as selling it to minor children
and near the educational institutions.
A legislation in this regard has gone
a long way, though it is not being enforced with a might
till date. In spite of the state Assembly passing the
bill in July 1997, it had to travel right up to Rashtrapati
Bhavan to get the assent
only in September 1999, thanks to the tobacco lobby.
The act however was brought fully into
force only on 26 January 2000, after exempting beaches,
sports stadiums, bus stands, ferry boats and amusement
parks as public places. Since
then, neither the state has notified smoking zones as
specified in the act nor enforced the legislation to
control smoking and chewing tobacco in public places.
Meanwhile, in order to control gutkha
consumption in the tourist state, the state in 1998
had imposed cent per cent
sales tax on gutkha. Though this made the gutkha sachets
disappear from the shops, sale in black became order
of the day, depriving the state from tax revenue.
"Before imposing cent per cent sales
tax, we were getting almost Rs 15 million with mere
eight per cent tax", informs additional sales tax commissioner
Y S Pai Bir. He admits that the revenue reduced drastically
after hiking the tax exorbitantly.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court order
prohibited states from imposing sales tax on gutkha
by categorising it as a tobacco product. The Goa government
then imposed 25 per cent luxury tax on it.
The state today however earns only
around Rs 35 lakh as the official gutkha turnover has
also come down to only around Rs 15 million. The illegal
sale of gutkha sachets even near the educational institutions
still continues while officials turn blind eye towards
it.
According to Dr Shekhar Salkar, general
secretary of the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication,
the impact of the legislation and education has definitely
brought down the rate of smoking, but not chewing the
tobacco.
In fact, he is worried about the increasing
trend among the younger generation of chewing tobacco,
especially the most addictive products like gutkha.
"Only a central legislation in this regard will help,
though efforts of the state governments are definitely
commendable", he states.
It is a fact that Goa was the first
state to bring in legislation banning smoking and chewing
tobacco in public places. Though it is not implemented
with full vigour, Dr Salkar feels that even the ban
on advertising tobacco products has helped tremendously.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar has
also supported the move and plans to bring in the legislation,
if possible in the ongoing month-long monsoon session.
His announcement in this regard in the House last night
has thus been welcomed from several quarters.
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