#StupidTax : Modi Government plans to impose tax on Sugar to fight Obesity and Diabetes
Gone are those days when medicines were needed to treat a disease, Now Tax treats Diseases. My dear Tax payers, Be Ready to shell out more if you consume anything which according to the Govt contains high amount of Sugar or is classified as Junk Food. Shall we read it as a New way to target Maggi ?
How it all Started ?
WHO reports revealed that diabetes may become the seventh largest killer in the world. It is spreading in an epidemic proportion. The WHO has urged countries to take concerning steps to control this disease and in an effort to curb the growing incidence of diabetes in India, the Modi government is planning to take stringent measures.
SO here is the Joke:
The government is thinking of imposing higher taxes and stricter advertisement norms to regulate the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages and junk food in the country.
The health ministry and the central food safety regulator are working on a detailed proposal to curtail increasing consumption of unhealthy food and beverages, mainly among children, leading to a burden of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and
obesity. In fact, the work on the plan has moved beyond a proposal and an inter-ministerial consultation has already taken place in February .According to a senior official in the ministry, there is a serious effort to control non-communicable diseases mainly diabetes and cancer. Multi-sectoral action plans and consultations have already started with different ministries. There are specific proposals as part of the plan. He also added that the ministry is now compiling the feedback from all the ministries and will soon take up the proposal to the finance ministry and the PMO for further action.
According to the official, there is an overall consensus among various ministries and government departments to take stringent measures to contain the rising disease burden right at childhood.
So if You buy anything which is junk food, you pay more taxes. But how does it help reduce diabetes for those who are already suffering ? For those who have a genetic predisposition to this disease , How does this tax help ?
BioTecNika’s Viewpoint: Taxing a commodity does not reduce its consumption, Its just another way to increase Government’s Revenue. Incidentally Mahatma Gandhi ( who also belonged to Gujarat ) raised his voices against Taxes on Salt and the famous Dandi March took Place followed by the Gandhi Irwin Pact . If the Government is really interested in reducing such life style disease the following should be done:
- Invest more on Research on Diabetes
- Subsidize the Treatment of Life Style Disease
- Encourage people to opt for various exercises
- Create awareness about Genetic Predisposition of Diabetes
Taxing Sugar or Sugar Products neither is the solution to this problem, rather it just impacts very negatively to the budget of Middle class families.
Next is what ?
Ghee Tax coz it causes Cardiovascular Diseases- Aloo Tax aka Potato Tax to prevent Diabetes
- Salt Tax to prevent Hypertension
- Baby Delivery Tax to reduce Population
- and the List goes on…. 🙂
Let us know your thoughts over this barbaric tax regime below in the comments.
