Govt of India "undermines" anti-tobacco cause: GST exemption to businesses with Rs 40 lakh turnover

By A Representative
The decision of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, which consists of the finance ministers of centre and all the states, to exempt businesses with turnover of Rs 40 lakh, raising the threshold from Rs 20 lakh, would, ironically. give a big boost to the beedi manufacturing units, most of whom, according to experts, fall within the Rs 40 lakh limit.
“This would indirectly undermine the Government of India campaign to fight tobacco”, a social activist fighting for tobacco free India told me, adding, “Before GST came into force, there was no tax on beedi manufacturing units producing more than 20 lakh beedis. At the Rs 20 lakh threshold, the no-tax regime, for all practical purposes, was applicable to the units producing up to 30 lakh beedis.”
The activist underlined, “Now, with the new norm, proposed by the GST Council, nearly 98% of beedi manufacturing units would be out of the tax net. This would help them expand their activities, even as earning more profits at the cost of human health.” He added, "The Government of India should ensure that the social cause of fighting tobacco, which causes cancer, is not discouraged."

Comments

Xi Jinping’s visit to USA: Recognition that China can't be contained?

By Vijay Prashad President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to the United States must be understood as more than an encounter between two heads of state, but it must be seen as an encounter between two possible futures. In one future, the United States imposes a spiral of confrontation against China. Trade disputes harden into economic warfare, then economic warfare intensifies into technological blockades, technological blockades produce military encirclement, and finally military encirclement creates incidents, and incidents the danger of becoming an unimaginable war.

Swaminarayan, untouchability and the 'we are not Hindu' argument

By Rajiv Shah Following my blog on why the Eiffel Tower authorities should take all the blame for giving in to the Swaminarayan sadhus ’ bizarre demand to “invisibilise” women, including its female staff, during their visit to the internationally renowned Paris tourist centre on September 5, an interesting comment by one of the top academics drew my attention to something I vaguely knew about one of India’s most powerful and richest religious sects.

From margins to microphones: The rise of Dalit hip-hop in India

By Tersina Maria Toppo* A protest does not always arrive as a slogan shouted from a street corner. Sometimes, it arrives on a beat. A microphone replaces the megaphone, a music video becomes a public square, and the smartphone becomes the space where a history once pushed to the margins is narrated, debated, and shared.

Counterview

Search This Blog