SANJAY THAPA JEET
NEW DELHI
Even as Union Cabinet has banned E-cigarettes, India is fast becoming the manufacturing hub of illegal cigarettes in the world. With illicit manufacturing plants having been set up in northern states like Rajasthan,Punjab, Haryana, UP, and MP ; India is fast gaining the dubious distinction of becoming world’s 4th largest market for illegal cigarettes.
This rapid growth in illicit cigarette manufacturing, including spurious copies of many foreign brands, result from glaring loopholes in laws like IDR 1951. Cigarette licenses are regulated by the Industries Development Regulation Act of (IDR) 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 continue using a flaw in the Act. For instance, 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.
Over the years, many illicit cigarette manufacturing units have sprung up all over India, under Micro,Small and Medium Enterprises. According to Tobacco Board of India, there were 41 tobacco manufacturers that were registered with it in 2018. This is defeating the tobacco control policy under which government of India had refused togrant any new licenses to manufacture new cigarettes ever since 1999. The government hence must push for suitable amendments in the IDR Act to ensure that punitive measures are incorporated for those using the loopholes to manufacture cigarettes.
