Sin-Tax Surge: Inside Odisha’s Decade-Long Rise to ₹1,234.88 Crore in Tobacco Revenue

28 Sep 2026, 11:49 by Vinay Kakkad · KalingaTV

Tax generation from the trade of tobacco and pan masala in Odisha has reached an unprecedented scale, touching Rs 1,234.88 crore in fiscal year 2024–25.

The figures, placed before the Odisha Legislative Assembly on Monday, reveal how sin-tax yields have expanded rapidly over the past decade.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi provided the financial breakdown in an official reply to a question submitted by lawmaker Tankadhar Tripathy. Majhi confirmed that statutory imposts—primarily Value Added Tax (VAT) along with complementary state duties—are actively levied on consumer sales spanning pan masala, gutkha, beedis, cigarettes, and allied tobacco products throughout the state.

Current returns show no sign of deceleration. For the ongoing 2025–26 fiscal year, public receipts from these product categories have already accumulated to Rs 885.45 crore.

What makes the 2024–25 figure striking is the steep ten-year ramp that preceded it. Back in 2016–17, state earnings from this sector stood at Rs 264.51 crore. During the structural tax shifts of 2017–18, receipts were split between Rs 71.49 crore up to June and Rs 309.53 crore from July through March. As consumption and compliance expanded, collections pushed upward to Rs 480.71 crore in 2018–19 and touched Rs 609.90 crore by 2019–20.

The upward trajectory continued without interruption into the 2020s. Receipts advanced to Rs 711.23 crore in 2020–21, rose to Rs 876.63 crore in 2021–22, and settled at Rs 889.42 crore across 2022–23. The corridor first crossed the four-digit threshold in 2023–24 at Rs 1,012.56 crore, before climbing to the peak collection of Rs 1,234.88 crore in 2024–25—capping an unbroken near fivefold surge over the decade.