What truly reflects the priorities of a government worth its name? High-sounding speeches of its ministers and bureaucrats that pledge all good things to all good people? Or a budget with policies and programs for a fiscal year outlined more or less clearly, along with capital allocations to implement them? The budget, of course.

If the budget for the fiscal 2023/24 is any guide, the government of Nepal appears to have thought that tobacco is more essential for the Nepali public than food itself.

Let the facts speak for themselves. The budget in question has slapped a whopping 13 percent value-added tax on essentials like potatoes, leave alone onions, for it is a very sensitive commodity whose price hike even pulled down a state government in India some years ago. As for tobacco tax, the government has increased excise duty on tobacco by a paltry 3 percent, raising the total tobacco tax to 41 percent whereas the World Health Organization’s recommended ceiling is 75 percent. Notably, Nepal has the lowest tobacco tax in South Asia compared to Bangladesh (71 percent), the Maldives (68 percent), Sri Lanka (66 percent), Pakistan (56 percent) and India (53 percent). What does a minimal hike on tobacco tax indicate if not pressure from some powerful interests? Together, a fledgling public health delivery system and lax tobacco laws spell a serious disaster for the gullible public while they bring no good tiding for a government as it has to foot mounting health bills. Through a series of reports on these issues, this daily has tried to open the eyes and the ears of powers that be, and will continue to do so in coming days. A prohibitive tax on tobacco is necessary in Nepal, with previous reports published in this daily as part of its No Tobacco Drive showing that an increasing number of Nepali youths are addicted to tobacco products like hookah. Indeed, there can be no smoke without fire. Findings of a recent research by the Nepal Development Research Institute (NDRI) show that smoking has emerged as a bigger killer in Nepal than in any other South Asian country. The findings paint an alarming picture of tobacco consumption and death in Nepal. The rate of death from tobacco has increased more in Nepal in the last 30 years than in any other country in the world, per the report. Furthermore, it shows that over 37,000 Nepalis died from smoking in 2019–that’s nearly one in five (19.4 percent) of all deaths, twice the rate in 1990 and well ahead of India’s 13.1 percent deaths due to tobacco consumption. At current rates, around 1.34m Nepalis will die from smoking in the next 30 years, goes the report. A concerted  fight against tobacco is long overdue. And the fight must start with the imposition of a prohibitive tax on tobacco products through suitable amendments in the budget itself.