Foreign cigarettes eating into business of local manufacturers

Ongole: The tobacco growers from Prakasam and Nellore districts on Thursday urged the Union government to take them into confidence when framing policies for them and demanded it to control the illegal sale of foreign cigarettes, to help the farmers sell their leaf.

The tobacco growers' leaders including P Murali, VV Prasad, B Ramanjaneyulu, P Badri Reddy, Ramanaiah, Narasappa Naidu, Marella Subbareddy along with the farmers from various parts of the Prakasam and Nellore districts celebrated the World Tobacco Growers Day, in which the executive director of the Tobacco Board, Addanki Sridhar Babu also participated as the chief guest.

Speaking at the meeting, Murali explained that India is the fourth largest and fastest-growing illegal cigarettes market in the world, and the market increased from 11.5 billion sticks in 2005 to 28 billion sticks in 2019. He said due to the increase in the smuggled foreign cigarettes, the Flue-Cured Virginia tobacco production is reduced from 325 million kg in 2014-15 to 227 million kg in 2020-21 in India.

He informed that the smuggled cigarettes are popular among the youth as they can be showed off for the brand, but available cheap due to tax evasion. Demanding to control the illegal cigarette trade, Prasad and Ramanjaneyulu pointed out that the punitive taxation on local tobacco products is also responsible for the fast expansion of their market.

They said that further increase of taxes on cigarettes means a negative impact on the livelihood of farmers due to a decrease in demand.

Badrireddy explained that the government should support the local industry by offering incentives to enhance the competitiveness of African countries in exporting tobacco.

The ninth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) of WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, scheduled from November 8 to 13, at Geneva. As the COP9 would have discussions on the issues that affect the livelihood of the tobacco farmers, Narasappa Naidu demanded the Union government to allow them also join the Health Ministry's delegation from India.

The SLS general secretary Ramanaiah said that the farmers are requesting the Ministry of Commerce to scrap the expert panel, as it is believed to influence the existing taxation system and COP9. The farmers opined that other countries are successfully eradicating the illicit cigarette trade with moderate taxation, which will help the domestic farmers and government by increasing local cigarette sales, without increasing the consumption, in the end.

Marella Subbareddy explained that most of the farming community in Prakasam and Nellore is dependent on the tobacco crop, and their livelihood is affected by the extreme weather conditions and declining domestic demand. He said that the tobacco crop in the region decreased to 75 million kg from 150 million kg a few years ago. He demanded the government to take measures to safeguard the tobacco industry and protect the interests of millions of people dependent on it.

During felicitation by the tobacco farmers, Sridhar Babu announced that the Tobacco Board is working for the welfare of farmers. He said that he is happy for reducing the penalties for the farmers by about 50 per cent, by issuing a gazette notification, and completely distributing the fertilizers to the farmers. He advised the farmers to take precautions to grow the export-oriented crop that is high in quality. He assured the farmers to take the requests and demands to the notice of the government.