Call for production licenses in India

The major cigarette manufacturers in India are calling for the compulsory licensing of all cigarette manufacturing units within the country, irrespective of their size, according to a story in the latest edition of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

They want, too, increases on customs duties on imported cigarettes to tariff levels suggested by the World Health Organization.

The manufacturers are concerned licit cigarette volumes are being hit by steep tax increases and a discriminatory regulatory regime.

At the same time, the illegal trade is said to be growing unabated.

This situation, the manufacturers said, had led to a shift in tobacco consumption to lightly-taxed or tobacco-evaded tobacco products such as bidis, khaini, chewing tobacco gutkha and illicit cigarettes, which, taken together, accounted for more than 89 percent to tobacco use nationwide.

The licit cigarette industry was expected to remain under stress because of the escalating increase in excise and the regulatory demand for bigger graphic health warnings.