The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has said that taxing the beedi industry at par with sin tax levied on the cigarette manufacturers has internal security imperatives especially in the Naxal-hit States.
As many 95 lakh people, including 85 lakh tribal women, mostly in Naxal-hit States are directly engaged in beedi rolling and the industry provides employment to another three-and-a-half crore more people, like those engaged in collection of tendu leaves.
“These women in the impoverished regions sustain their families through earnings at their homes generated from beedi rolling, essentially a cottage industry in which the raw materials are provided to the workers at their homes on a daily or weekly basis,” SJM Co-convenor Dr Ashwini Mahajan said on Thursday.
While in the long term winding up the industry could be a desirable option but not before providing sustainable alternate employment opportunities to those engaged in the beedi industry, he said.
Stating that even the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has backed handling of the beedi industry in right perspective, he said there is need to undertake scientific studies to ascertain the health hazards of smoking beedis and till then decisions should not be based on narratives of certain lobbies like cigarette industry or NGOs backed by them.
“The issue of employment of women in mostly backward regions must be balanced with public health as women participation is maximum in the beedi industry,” he said.
The beedi industry, unlike the cigarette industry, does not have lobbies to protect its interests, he said and justified his backing for the make in India cottage industry.
“Even Home Ministry reports have suggested that there are foreign lobbies working against the beedi industry and thereby hitting local Indian interests. This has also led to cancellation of FCRA licences of certain NGOs,” he said.
Higher taxes on beedis also lead to increased smuggling of Chinese cigarettes, further adding to New Delhi’s trade imbalance with Beijing. Higher taxes on beedis also lead to increased consumption of non-smoking products which pose a higher health risk to the consumers, he said, demanding reduction in the GST imposed on the beedis at the rate of 28 percent.
He also demanded that beedis should be kept out of the purview of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) and backed innovations to exploit export potential of the homegrown product.