Lettuce,Tomato,Cheese +14.5% tax = ‘Fat Tax’ Burger!
Lettuce,Tomato,Cheese +14.5% tax = ‘Fat Tax’ Burger ! Thinking of having Junk-Food in Kerala might be costlier pretty soon, as the Kerala government is trying to impose a 14.5% “Fat -Tax” on food items like Burgers, pizzas, doughnuts, pasta etc
Mangaluru: I’ not lovin’ it! Having a “Happy Meal” that includes a burger, fries etc will be costlier soon when you dine at McDonald’s in Kerala state. Even food items like pizzas, doughnuts, pasta, and bread-fillings served in branded fast-food chains like Dominos, Pizza Hut and Subway, and other branded fast-food joints are likely to see the new tax called as a “Fat Tax” of 14.5% imposed on them. It’s time for Keralites to stop their craving for junk-food like burgers, pizzas, pasta, doughnuts etc and switch back to their traditional delicacies like idli, dosa, appam, idiyappam, puttu, and pathiri.
Following in the footsteps of the Western Countries, Kerala is all gearing up introduce what it terms as a “fat tax” of 14.5% for junk-foods judged to be unhealthy. The state government has also made consumption of ready-to-eat chapatis dearer with the introduction of a 5% tax on wheat products in packets. The CPI (M)-led LDF government in Kerala on Friday presented its budget for 2016-17, focusing on strengthening social welfare schemes, public health and education. The host of people-friendly announcements includes free uniforms for students of aided schools, home for all in five years and land for tribals.
State finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac has announced a Rs 12,000-crore stimulus package for the next five years. In his characteristic “spend-big, create jobs” flourish, Isaac has said that Rs 2,500 crore out of this jumbo package will be pumped into the economy in the current year itself to beat the downturn. Kerala will create a special agency to pool together Rs 20,000-crore corpus to feed the stimulus package. The onus of this corpus would be on a specially created commission, named Iftac. The creation of this corpus will be hinged on the state government’s credibility to gather deposits from the public. A comprehensive legislation will be effected to set up this fund-raising mechanism for boosting infrastructure and stimulating jobs and income.
The Kerala government has clamped green tax on four-wheelers older than 10 years. Tourist buses will have to pay higher motor tax. If arrears on motor taxes are not filed in six months, the vehicle will be confiscated, warns the budget speech. Those with arrears for five years can go for OTS (one-time settlement) of 30% for light vehicles and 20% for heavy vehicles. The state has hiked taxes by 2% on garments and 5% on coconut oil and packed wheat products like ready-to-eat chappatis. Tax on cinema ticket, life-saving medicines, concrete door-frames and scrap batteries have been trimmed. But there will be no water-cess for the next five years, as per the budget.
