Asia has witnessed remarkable growth in its production and consumption of milk and dairy products in recent years and this trend is almost certain to continue.
Indeed, the Asia-Pacific region has overtaken Europe as the world’s largest milk producer, with India alone producing one in every five glasses of milk.
This increased consumption of dairy products in Asia and the Pacific is playing a vital role in improving child nutrition and boosting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers across the region — as the latter are the source of production for the vast amount of milk and dairy products that we consume.
By the end of 2015, the Asia-Pacific region as a whole had achieved the Millennium Development Goal to reduce hunger and undernutrition by half in the past quarter century. Clearly, the increased consumption of dairy products in the region is one factor which has contributed to the overall success in improving nutrition, particularly among children.
Bangladesh runs a successful school milk pilot scheme implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and it had made a difference in the overall well-being of the children who had received 200 ml of milk each school day.
School milk programmes
Other countries in the region, such as Thailand, have long-running national school milk programmes which have served as useful models in other countries. China, India, Japan and Vietnam also have experience with school milk programmes at various levels.
Milk is rich in minerals like calcium, magnesium and zinc, among others. The wide range of vitamins and amino acids present in milk are important building blocks for cells, bones, and muscles.
So as we work towards a world of zero hunger, milk and dairy products will continue to be among the important foods to help address undernutrition. With 490 million people still undernourished in the Asia-Pacific region, we must intensify our efforts and collaboration with the dairy sector for milk and dairy processes to become even more coordinated and productive.
And there is a clear business case to do so.
Between 1980 and 2013, milk production in the Asia-Pacific region grew at a rate of almost 4.5 per cent per annum against the global average of 1.5 per cent. By 2013, milk production in the Asia-Pacific region had reached 290 million tonnes — 38 per cent of global production — or more than a third of all milk produced in the world.
In fact, dairy is among the top three commodities produced in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of gross value worth more than U.S. $110 billion annually. During the next decade, it is expected that global production of milk will increase by more than 120 million tonnes and two-thirds of this increase will come from the Asia-Pacific region.
The FAO is working with stakeholders in the dairy sector on a Strategic Development Framework in Asia and developing an action plan for implementation and improved collaboration among countries in the region as development of the dairy sector progresses. Value chains will need to improve and we will also need to see improvements in productivity and competitiveness while introducing ways to reduce negative environmental impacts, because with increasing scarcity of, and competition for, natural resources, the sector must produce more efficiently and sustainably.
It is expected that the private sector will play an increasingly important role in attracting private investment. But at the same time, we must ensure that millions of smallholder farmers scattered across the region, including millions of women who contribute to this growing dairy sector, are treated fairly and that everyone involved is properly rewarded for their efforts. Improving the ability of smallholders to organise themselves and attain greater bargaining power in the market place must be a core element of our work as we move forward.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.