Increasing cigarette prices by 50% would help avoid over 40 lakh tobacco related deaths in India, said a report released by multilateral funding agency Asian Development Bank.
"A 50% price increase in cigarettes avoids about 27 million (or 2.70 crore) tobacco-attributable deaths, most of which are in the two most populous countries in the world. China would avoids nearly 20 million tobacco deaths, and India over 4 million tobacco deaths," said the report.
For India, it said, the 50% rise in cigarette prices corresponds to increase of 70-122% rise in tax increase.
As per the report, China, India, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in Asia are among the top five of the 15 tobacco using countries that account for two-third of the world tobacco consumption.
