Haryana & Punjab Must Crackdown on Illicit Cigarettes: Every Fourth Cigarette Sold Here is Illegal

By Samachar Vishesh News

Chandigarh 04^th September:- In wake of Haryana and Punjab becoming major centres for manufacture, trade and consumption of illicit cigarettes, experts have called for immediate tightening of regulations and administrative crackdown including strict enforcements. 

At a media workshop on Wednesday, experts also warned of an impending crisis with implications for health and government revenues in wake of unfettered growth in manufacture and sales of illicit cigarettes in Punjab & Haryana. RK Tiwari of Centre for Public Awareness, said that due to low surveillance and lack of regulations, manufacturers are using the states as dumping ground of illicit cigarettes. In addition to illegally manufactured cigarettes, counterfeit cigarettes are also being smuggled from China and elsewhere. Brands like Win, Black, ESSE, Mond, Pine etc do not carry mandatory 85% pictorial warnings, thereby giving a gullible consumer an impression that these are safer cigarettes.   

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in every 10 cigarettes and tobacco products consumed globally is illicit, however India the situation is very grave, 1 in 4 cigarettes is illegal. In addition to posing serious health challenges for youth, trade in illicit cigarettes is also a potential source of terror funding. “The illicit market is supported by various players ranging from petty peddlers to organized criminal networks involved in arms and human trafficking” according to WHO.

According to Euromonitor International, Illegal Cigarette trade currently accounts for as much as 1/4th of the cigarette Industry in India with more than 25 billion sticks of Illegal cigarettes consumed in 2017. He added that the trade in illicit cigarettes causes an estimated loss of over Rs 13,000 crore in tax evasions to the government.

Cigarette licenses are regulated by the Industries Development & Regulation Act of 1951. Post the 1991 de-licensing, only five industries are under compulsory licensing including cigars and cigarettes of tobacco and manufactured tobacco substitutes. No new licenses have been granted for manufacture of these items since 1999. Yet illicit manufacturing of cigarettes continues using a flaw in the Act.

Pampa Mukherjee, professor at Panjab University, Chandigarh shared that the definition of ‘factory’ under the Act does not make any exceptions on products. It says that units employing less than 50 workers with the aid of power, or 100 workers without the aid of power, can set up a factory without obtaining a compulsory license, and that is where the problem lies.

R K Tiwari further shared that flaunting this loophole, many factories have come up in Punjab manufacturing and clearing cigarettes clandestinely.

Dr Rakesh Khullar of BGJ Institute of Health, Panjab University, Chandigarh said that illegal cigarettes come mixed with hazardous substances including imported intoxicants from China and they are extremely harmful. Experts point out that such illegal cigarettes have five times as much cadmium, nearly six times as much lead and high levels of arsenic. They also contain 160% more tar, 80% more nicotine and 133 percent more carbon monoxide.

 A research by the Department of Sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York shows that such cigarettes in fact have higher levels of toxic chemicals including tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, lead, arsenic, and toxic metal cadmium.