The direct linkages between sanitation and health are evident. The latest study published by World Health Organization (WHO) on October 26, 2016 validates that the value of sanitation cannot be deduced only by the use of improved sanitation facilities but from improving coverage at community level and ensuring better outcomes in the form of health benefits.
Although widely accepted as one of the most important public health advances of the past 100 years, the contribution that improving sanitation coverage can make to child health is still unclear.
Relationship between mortality and sanitation
The study found that the relationship between diarrheal mortality, all-cause mortality, stunting and being underweight is non-linearly and independently associated with improved sanitation and improved water source. Authors, Paul R. Hunter and Annette Pruss-Ustun, applied a generalised additive model over child mortality and sanitation coverage to find the relationship between sanitation coverage and child health. The relation comes out to be a linear at individual level but non-linear at community level.
Child mortality and disease outbreak is independent of sanitation facilities in communities with sanitation coverage of less than 50 per cent because availability of improved sanitation protects the community rather than the individual user. If communities become more reluctant towards open defecation, infant health improves and a gradual decline in ill health is observed. Indeed, it has been shown that sanitation coverage is one of the most important predictors of all-cause mortality in children neonatal mortality.
Increasing sanitation coverage is one of the more important interventions for reducing neonatal and children mortality globally and would dwarf the impact of increased wealth and health expenditure. In the recent diseases burden studies produced by the WHO, the researchers estimated that 280,000 deaths from inadequate access to improved sanitation were recorded in 2012.
The study also found that improving water supplies is also important along with increasing sanitation coverage. Although the association between water coverage and reduced malnutrition is non-linear in the model, there is still a general gradual decline in malnutrition with increasing water coverage. There appears to be a small gradual increase in malnutrition with increases in sanitation at the low end,
Currently, 50 per cent of undernutrition is linked to infections caused by poor sanitation and unhygienic practices. Moreover, stunted growth in about 54 per cent of cases is linked to open defecation.
Conclusion
The study concluded that sanitation coverage is indeed one of the most important factors in reducing child and neonatal mortality which can dramatically change public health priorities in low-income countries. The result of the study shows that increasing sanitation coverage at community level can be a major contributor to reducing childhood stunting and underweight.
Improved sanitation coverage is strongly related to under-five diarrhoea mortality, under-five all-cause mortality and all-cause neo-natal mortality. The incidence of mortality decreases when sanitation coverage increased up to 20 per cent at community level. In a community with more than 50 per cent sanitation coverage, the quality and quantity of water is another major determinant of child health and mortality.
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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.