Why Tobacco not banned in India completely?

The world always has its set of problems in terms of health and well-being. A growing concern on everyone's mind is- the growing concern of tobacco smoking. The cons of smoking are more than the pros. The declining health and well-being of the population are always discussed. Despite all these concerns, tobacco as a commodity is not going away from the Indian market for a variety of economic and social reasons. Here are some to list a few:

• High tax generation

Tobacco is harmful to human consumption and is one of the important causal factors for cancer the sale of tobacco, generates high tax revenue in the Indian economy. Both the central and state government is equally benefited from the taxes collected. As per sources, it is claims to have generated close to 42 billion rupees in revenue, which is said to be significant- to the Indian economy. The tax cost is borne by the end customer, despite this, there is no slowing down in the demand for tobacco. 

• Source of employment

Employment is always an important factor in the economy, in both the skilled and unskilled sectors. As per CTRI (Central Tobacco Research institute), it is said that a total of 38 million people. This includes people from the villages and tribal sections of the population. The manufacturing, processing, and exports employ close to 10 million as per the 2023 estimates. 

• Exports 

Foreign trade plays an important role in the nation’s growth. Tobacco also adds to spreading our trade alliance to many nations in the European, Middle East, and also African markets. Presently, the FCV variant of tobacco (Flue-cured variant) is the highest export variant, which accounts for 6% of the total tobacco exports from the world market. As per the export records, in the last five years, we have exported the maximum amount of tobacco to countries like Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany, and South Korea.

• Protection of Indian soils 

Agriculture is one of the important sectors in all the major economies- in the case of India, it's considered to be the livelihood of many people. To protect the crops from pests and insects it's more likely that the use of pesticides, and insecticides would be used to ensure a good yield in the cropping season. Since we follow intensive farming techniques for most of the crops it's more likely to use the chemical form of insecticides and pesticides. And since soil degradation is to happen, the use of alternative techniques of protection, an environmentally friendly technique is the next best option. Tobacco research in India is said to have found a solution to producing tobacco in the best possible way- in terms of the least use of Potash, and implementation of best farming practices have helped in getting the best quality crop. This invariably has led to high demand for the crop overseas. With improved agricultural practices such as micro irrigation and fertigation systems- many of the soil constituents and nutrients are safe in our soils.