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. 2019 Jan 17:3:8.
doi: 10.12688/gatesopenres.12894.1.

Visualizing data: Trends in smoking tobacco prices and taxes in India

G Emmanuel Guindon  1   2   3 , Tooba Fatima  1 , David X Li  4 , Alexandra Joukova  1 , Jitender Sudhir  5 , Sujata Mishra  5   6 , Frank J Chaloupka  7   8 , Prabhat Jha  5   6
Affiliations
Free PMC article

Visualizing data: Trends in smoking tobacco prices and taxes in India

G Emmanuel Guindon et al. Gates Open Res. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Background : Tobacco smoking remains a leading risk factor for disease burden globally. In India alone, about 1 million deaths are caused annually by smoking. Although increasing tobacco prices has consistently been found to be the most effective intervention to reduce tobacco use, the documentation of prices and taxes across time and space has not been an essential component of tobacco control surveillance in most jurisdictions. This study aimed to examine, using graphical methods, trends in smoking tobacco taxes and prices in India at national and state-level. Methods : We used retail prices, price indices, and unit values (household expenditures on a commodity divided by the quantity purchased) collected and reported by government agencies. For bidis and cigarettes, we examined current and real (inflation-adjusted) prices, affordability (cost in terms of income), and key tax changes at both national and state-level. Results : We show that real prices of bidis and cigarettes were relatively flat (even decreasing in the case of bidis) between 2000 and 2007, and clearly increasing from 2010. When rising income is taken into account, however, both cigarettes and bidis have become more affordable since 2000. We found that some but not all tax changes were accompanied by price changes and in particular, that tax decreases did not result in price decreases. Conclusion : It is feasible to evaluate tax and price policies at national and regional level using routinely collected data.

Keywords: India; bidi; cigarette; data visualization; price; smoking; tax; tobacco.

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Conflict of interest statement

No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Trends in real prices in India: Consumer Price Indices for Industrial Workers for bidis, cigarettes and all-items, January 2000 - April 2018.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Trends in affordability in India: Consumer Price Indices for Industrial Workers for bidis and cigarettes, Quarterly Growth Rates of real GDP, January-March 2000 — January-March 2018.
Figure 3a.
Figure 3a.. Trends in current bidi prices and smoking tobacco taxation in Rajasthan, January 1998 - March 2018.
Figure 3b.
Figure 3b.. Trends in current cigarette prices and smoking tobacco taxation in Rajasthan, January 1998 - March 2018.
Figure 4a.
Figure 4a.. Trends in current bidi prices and smoking tobacco taxation in Uttar Pradesh, January 1998 - March 2018.
Figure 4b.
Figure 4b.. Trends in current cigarette prices and smoking tobacco taxation in Uttar Pradesh, January 1998 - March 2018.
Figure 5a.
Figure 5a.. Trends in current bidi prices and affordability by socioeconomic status in India: National Sample Surveys, July-September 1999 — April-June 2012.
Figure 5b.
Figure 5b.. Trends in current cigarette prices and affordability by socioeconomic status in India: National Sample Surveys, July-September 1999 — April- June 2012.
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