New Delhi |HLive
The Government decided to make compulsory the 85 per cent of pictorial warnings on the packets of all tobacco products, may put government into loss of Rs.350 Crore, as manufacturers come to a decision to shut production against the enforcement taken by government.
Apart from this it there may be rise in illegal cigrattee and tobacco products.
The decision of the Government had come after recommendations of a parliamentary committee recently advocating pictorial warnings on tobacco and cigarette packets to be brought down to 50 per cent from 85 per cent, saying that the latter figure will be too harsh on the tobacco industry.
This move of government is appreciated by health expertise as this is control the tobacco led deaths in the country, which currently stands at over 10 lakh, costing the Government over Rs. 1,04,500 crore – a whopping 1.16 per cent of India’s GDP.
“We now look to the Health Minister to continue his crusade against tobacco and implement the 85 per cent pictorial health warnings on both sides of tobacco packages, as planned, to save the Indian youth and children from tobacco initiation and addiction,” Harit Chaturvedi Chairman, Max Institute Of Oncology and Director, Surgical Oncology at Max Healthcare
M.C Misra, Director of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) stated: “This is one among the best initiative taken. Eighty percent of the cancer patients have associations with tobacco and precisely chewing tobacco. Though not every consumer will stop taking tobacco but this initiative will have a impact on a large chunk.”
With the implementation of new warnings, India will now move to the second position from 136th in the list of countries that such warnings on tobacco packs including neighbouring countries like Nepal (99 per cent), Sri Lanka (80 per cent), Thailand (85 per cent), and Bangladesh (50 per cent).
India will host the Conference of the Parties of the WHO tobacco-control treaty in November 2016 .
Till now tobacco packets available in the market were having statutory pictorial and textual health warnings of 40 per cent on the package area at one side only.
The move of the Government has also come despite repeated request and several MoU submitted to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and health minister J.P Nadda, following the economic loss to the tobacco farmers and the people dependent on the tobacco industry for their survival. The recent decision by the manufacturers of shuting down production in the country is going to result in a loss of Rs. 350 crores daily for the Indian Government.
The announcement was made by Tobacco Institute of India (TII), which comprises manufacturers accounting for more than 98 per cent of the country’s domestic sales of duty paid cigarettes in India.
Though no official from the health ministry was available for comment on the issue, M.C Misra, Director AIIMS said: ” It does not matter even if the loss is Rs. 3, 500 crore. Nothing is more important than the lives of the country people. During such initiatives there are advantages and disadvantages both, so we need to be ready for all.”
Calling it a black day for all the tobacco farmers in the country, Murali Babu, General Secretary of Federation of All India Farmers’ Associations (FAIFA), a tobacco farmers association, said “The government is trying to murder the Indian tobacco farmers by going ahead with such initiatives.”
Both the Tobacco Institute of India and the FAIFA have said that 85 per cent warnings will promote illegal cigarette trade, and adversely affect the livelihood of 45.7 million people dependent on tobacco which included farmers, labour, workers, trade and others.
“Illegal cigarettes accounts for one fifth of the total cigarette industry resulting in annual revenue loss of Rs. 9,000 crores to the National Exchequer,” said a statement from the TII.
Both of the Institutions have also urged the Government to investigate the NGOs clamoring for 85 per cent tobacco pictorial warnings, alleging they are getting higher funds for doing so from International bodies.
According to them, the Government should align the tobacco pictorial warning policy with the other tobacco producing countries such as US, China and Japan, who despite being highly concerned for the health of the public do not have any pictorial warnings on the tobacco products.
Countries like China, USA and Japan have accounting for 51 per cent of global cigarette consumption. And yet they didn’t take on to pictorial warnings . They are having only 30 per cent of text warnings on such products.
