Prices of certain cigarettes brands have risen between 6 to 25 per cent as cigarette manufacturers shut operations seeking clarity over the Government’s directive for bigger health warnings on packets.
Though stocks are available with distributors but these are not enough to keep up with demand. Retailers are also buying it at higher prices from wholesalers and hence they are charging more from consumers. Stocks are expected to deplete if sellers supply according to demand.
ITC, Godfrey-Philips India and VST under the aegis of the Tobacco Institute of India have decided to halt cigarette production last Friday citing ambiguity over health warnings for tobacco products.
The Union Health Ministry on September 24, 2015, had prescribed 85 per cent pictorial warnings on tobacco products’ packaging, which came into force from April 1. At present, pictorial warnings must take up 40 per cent of the packaging surface.
The International Tobacco Growers Association had appealed to the Government to include tobacco farmers in the Indian delegation in the FCTC COP7 meeting
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