Chinese is ‘sin’ but sweets are fun: Is this GST health hypocrisy?
Since India slaps 40% GST on sugars drinks, they have been combined with alcohol and tobacco, traditional Indian sweets continue to enjoy a gentle 5% tax rate after the deficiency declared today. In a nation struggling with record diabetes and obesity, is it a cultural blind place or calculation political appeasement?
India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council drawn only a difficult moral line. A bold 40% slab labeled for “sin” and luxury goods is now applied to beverages with cold drinks, iced tea, energy drinks and other sugars. The message is loud and clear: Chinese is no longer a dietary issue, but a public threat.
And yet, somehow, Mitai (sweets) escapes from unheard. The same regulatory system that punishes a cola for its sugar content reduces 5% GST concession of sweets such as Gulab Jamun, Cashew Katli, Rasgulla and Halwa.
While essential foods remain tax-free, the government has dropped GST from 18% to 5% on a wide range of everyday products, Indian sweets,
If it seems contradictory, it is because it is. You cannot declare Chinese a threat to public health in a breath and then sanctify it in the next. Experts called this incompatibility a clear policy blindness, coated in emotion and sealed with political campaigns.
No, Chinese does not care about culture
Since it is a health op-ed, let’s start with science.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), more than 5% of daily calories should not come from Chinese which is less than 10% of the World Health Organization. However, in fact, urban Indians consume about 80 to 90 grams of sugar more than three times per day than the safe range recommended by any health agency.
If we focus on Indian dessert, and compare with cola, the situation is even more.
Any one Gulab Jamun has 56 grams of carbsMost of this sugar. A 250 ml cold drinkOn the other hand, about 26 grams,
But your pancreas does not care about culture. Nor is your liver. Whether the sugar comes out of a bottle or a nest is built in a Mitai box, the effect is the same. Experts connect it to an insulin spikes, metabolic laxity, weight gain, fatty liver and a straight path for diabetes.
We are not a country that can bear this enjoyment. India now has more than 101 million people with diabetes, and the other 136 million pre-melodies. It is one of the about five Indians.
However, our GST reforms completely ignore this point.
Improvement by directed by emotion, not science?
So why the difference? Why is a fazi drink labeled “sin well”, while a sweet is considered a national treasure?
It lies in the north how we see modern consumption vs. traditional enjoyment. Cold drinks are seen as western, urban and aspirations. These characteristics make it easier to make the cola a villain. On the other hand, Indian sweets, religious rituals, family traditions and cultural pride are bound. For most Indian homes, “Mitai is memory.”
But health results are not guided by emotions. Public policy should not be either. If we are serious about struggling with non-communicable diseases, we need to prevent apathy. Sugar is sugar – whether it comes with bubbles or takes it in a syrup made of cardamom!
It is not about displaying sweets. It is about similar treatment under a public health structure. You cannot fight on sugar with one hand behind your back. As a cardiologist Dr. with Fortis hospitals. Mukherjee Madiwada said, “We confuse homemade with healthy. That Gulab Jamun can be more sugar than a soft drink, but we dismiss it as ‘harmless’ as it is culturally familiar.”
A political sweet teeth?
There is also an unexpected political calculus here. Increasing tax on sweets is not only economically unpopular, but also electorally dangerous. From small traders to Mitawala associations, even resistance to suggestions that Indian sweets should be regulated, taxed alone as cigarettes.
The irony here is that these very products are promoting the silent epidemic of India’s childhood obesity, initial-heritage diabetes and metabolic disorders. This case is even more exposed in rural India. However, Indian politicians will not touch it. Experts feel that it is not in political interest to increase tax on a laddus, and you invite backlash and it will not be just from commercial lobby.
Let’s be clear. The tax step on high-circular drinks at 40% is a good. It sends a strong behavior elbow, especially to young consumers. But staying there makes it symbolic, not systemic. If the government is serious about addressing lifestyle diseases, then what needs to happen here:
- Opt for a uniform Chinese taxation: Apply the “sin” slab to all high-chronic products regardless of their origin.
- Front-off-pack sugar warning should be one need: Not only does calorie matters, but also for color-coded sugar content label, especially, for Mitai, breakfast grains and snacks.
- Limit exemption based on emotion: Temple Prasad, Utsav Hummers, Wedding Sweets; If we are preparing it as a health crisis then there should be no immunity.
- Encourage improved dessert: Support small businesses in creating a low-sugar version of traditional items.
- Start a National Chinese Awareness Campaign: As we did for smoking, hygiene and nutrition.
We are at a divisive point and India can no longer take the risk of playing favorite with food. We cannot keep “modern” sugar by canoning our traditional cousin. The remembering thing is that public health cannot be selective. If we really want to protect the next generation, then we should stop the sweet-oriented in our own way around the truth. Taxing Cola, but not mature is not cultural sensitivity, but many consider it to be regulatory cowardice.
And it is making us sick.