Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Sin Goods and Sin Tax)

Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Sin Goods and Sin Tax

The government may consider bringing down Goods and Services Tax (GST) on two-wheelers from the highest slab of 28% as finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has assured the industry, two-wheelers are neither a luxury nor a sin good, hence merit a rate revision.

Sin goods are goods which consider harmful to society. Example of sin goods: Alcohol and Tobacco, Candies, Drugs, Soft drinks, Fast foods, Coffee, Sugar, Gambling, etc.
Taxes levied by the government on sin goods called Sin Tax.
In India, cigarettes, pan masala and liquor have always attracted high taxes, even under a non-GST regime.
Countries such as the UK, Sweden and Canada impose Sin Taxes on a series of products and services, from tobacco and alcohol to lotteries, gambling and fuel, which chip in with sizeable revenues.
Mexico imposed a Soda Tax in 2013 and the UK is now debating a Sugar Tax, to tackle obesity, on all foods and drinks with high concentrations of the sweetener.

Sin’ taxes are imposed to discourage consumers from using goods or services that are seen as undesirable or detrimental to society.
Sin Taxes are intended to serve two objectives.
One, to make the undesirable goods so expensive that rational consumer would be forced to give up the habit.
Two, to make the industry producing these products pay higher tax, which can be used to fund other welfare expenditure.
Sin Taxes are now a global trend.
Revenue generated by sin taxes supports many projects imperative in accomplishing social and economic goals.

That excessive consumption of tobacco, alcohol or empty calories heightens health risks such as cancer, heart conditions and obesity, is quite well-documented by now.
Evidence from other countries that have imposed Sin Taxes shows the consumption of cigarettes and soft drinks has fallen significantly, after the new tax.
The huge revenues many State governments in India rake in from liquor sales (and taxes) show that Sin Taxes can mean a bonanza for the State.
In India, the case for taxing vices can be further bolstered by the fact that the country can ill-afford to fritter away its limited healthcare budget on avoidable health risks.

Economists and advocates of personal liberty have equally strong arguments again Sin Taxes too. For one, a definition of what constitutes a ‘vice’ can be pretty fluid.
Sin Taxes can give the state unnecessary moral authority to dictate what citizens should and should not be doing.
While Sin Taxes may reduce purchases of a product for a few initial years as fence-sitters or occasional users cut back, consumers who are really addicted to the habit may persist with their ‘sinning’. This can extract a steep toll on poor families.
Sin Taxes, once imposed, don’t really distinguish between occasional and addicted users of products and services.
There is the danger that once the government tastes success with one kind of Sin Tax, it may be tempted to extend it to a battery of others.

According to the current Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate structure, some of the sin goods that attract a cess include cigarettes, pan masala and aerated drinks.
Apart from sin goods, luxury products like cars also attract a cess.