Ongole: Tobacco dealers demand end to monopoly in cigarette manufacturing

Ongole: The Indian Tobacco Association leaders and members on Sunday demanded the Union government to end the monopoly of one company in the cigarette manufacturing in the country and open gates for the foreign direct investments in the tobacco industry also.

They organised a meeting with the dealers, exporters and other stakeholders in in Ongole and discussed the present situation in the market.

In the meeting, the Indian Tobacco Association vice-president Polineni Venkatesan, YSRCP MLA from Guntur Mohammad Musthafa Shaik, KBMN Krishna, joint secretary Chunduri Ravi Babu, leaders including Bellam Jayanthi Babu, Damacharla Sathya, Mandalaneni Subbarao, Ravuri Praveen Kumar and others expressed their views on the market condition and the required support from the government for revival.

Venkatesan informed the members about the recent meeting of a delegation from ITA with the Secretary of Department of Commerce, BVR Subrahmanyam.

Musthafa and others opined that irrespective of the political affiliation, the tobacco dealers must be united to resolve their issues. They said that the farmers are not receiving the fair price for their hard work, and alleged that the cigarette manufacturer is not allowing the tobacco board to conduct the auction in time.

The association leaders explained that the dealers are paying the GST on the price of tobacco they are purchasing from the farmer, but the manufacturer is not paying the expenses including the taxes.

When they confronted the GST issue with the company, the company is participating in the auction, forcing the dealers out of business and offering a relatively low price to the farmers, they alleged.

The speakers in the meeting also clarified various issues related to the business, bank loans etc, and demanded the government to intervene immediately for the greater good of the farmers and the dealers.

Speaking in the press meet, the vice-president of the Indian Tobacco Association Polineni, Venkatesan and joint secretary Chunduri Ravi Babu demanded the government to limit the tobacco board to its main objective, facilitate the farmers sell their produce to the merchants and see they are paid in time, but not to feed on the hard work of the farmers.

They asked the government to liberalise the tobacco auction system by giving freedom to the farmer to sell his produce to any person who is offering a better price. They advised it to allow the dealers to buy unsold bales, scrap and bits of tobacco from the farmers by paying the cess to the board.

They asked the government to order the board to fix the prices for various grades of tobacco and purchase the leaf as per those rates, as the Government of Andhra Pradesh is practising at Rythu Bharosa Kendras for other commercial crops.

They alleged that the Tobacco Board is dancing to the tunes of the only cigarette manufacturing company and implementing the policies drafted by it.

They said that foreign companies like Philip Morris International are trying to enter into the Indian market by contract farming and are ready to manufacture cigarettes for sale in their established markets except India.

They said that encouraging the FDIs in the tobacco industry will end the monopoly, improve the competition, increase quality and also helps the farmers in the end.

They also demanded the government to renew the licenses once in three years, but allow returning stocks once a year. They insisted that the government should relax the GST to 5 per cent on the dealers, as it will help the small dealers also to survive in the market.

They explained that they suffered huge losses due to no business and loss of quality in the leaf in the Covid pandemic time. They requested the government to recommend the banks relieve them from the interest on loans for the last two years.