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GST

Taxation Gone Awry

During its 55th meeting, the GST Council clarified that tax treatment for popcorn would depend on its flavour and the way it was sold; while popcorn sold loose will be taxed at 5 per cent, GST on popcorn will incre a se to 12 per cent if it was sold in packets under a brand name, while caramelised popcorn would be taxed at 18 per cent.

Tackling Sloth

A simple solution to control time and cost overruns would be to condense the timeline of all Government projects to one year. Typically, each Government Department has scores of projects running simultaneously. Budget allocations are made in a way that some projects hibernate while others are speeded-up. If a time period of one year is uniformly allocated for all Government projects, starting from 1 April, cost and time overruns could be easily monitored

Sparing Tobacco

The budget was completely silent on any tax revisions on bidis or smokeless tobacco, which are consumed by most Indian tobacco users. It is pertinent to mention here that cigarettes account for only 15 per cent of tobacco users in India. There are reports which establish that cigarette smokers switch to bidis when cigarettes become exorbitant; this is equally detrimental to health. For public health professionals this negligible tax increase on cigarettes in the Union Budget and leaving taxes on other tobacco products unaffected was a major disappointment