Indian cigarette companies have decided to shut their factories from April 1 claiming ambiguity in the government’s order to print warning images on 85% of the display area of tobacco packs.
“Members of the Tobacco Institute of India (TII), which account for more than 98% of the country’s domestic sales of duty paid cigarettes in India, have unanimously decided to shut all their cigarette factories with effect from April 1, 2016,” says a statement from the institute, which is an industry funded lobby organisation.
“Owing to ambiguity in the policy related to revision of graphic health warnings on tobacco product packs, the members are unable to continue manufacturing cigarettes from April 1, 2016,” says the statement. The industry wrote to the Health Ministry on March 15, seeking clarifications. Fearing potential violation of rules by continuing production, the TII members have decided to shut their factories, said Syed Mahmood Ahmad, director of the institute.
TII members include major tobacco players like ITC, Godfrey Philips and VST.
The decision, Ahmad claimed, would result in an estimated loss of Rs 350 crore per day in production turnover for the Indian tobacco industry.
On March 28, the Union Health Ministry submitted an affidavit in the Rajasthan High Court asserting that the government would go ahead with its six-month-old order to print the warning pictures and text on 85% of the display area. Currently, only 40% of the space on a cigarette pack is used to print these warnings.
The ministry informed the High Court that subsequent to its September 24, 2015 notification, all necessary steps were taken to implement the new rules from April 1.
The compact disks of the images of health warnings as specified in these rules were distributed to tobacco product manufacturers and producers, who applied for the same.
The soft copies of the notification and the images of specified health warnings were uploaded on the ministry’s website and a public notice was issued on February 19, giving the manufacturers adequate time to switch to the new packaging.
The Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation, however, described the 85% proposal as “too harsh” and recommended that such graphics be printed only on 50% of the space.
DH News Service