NEW DELHI: Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has moved a Cabinet proposal to completely ban Foreign Direct Investment in the tobacco sector stating that the government did not want to encourage foreign investment in this sector.
The official statement of the government said that tobacco will kill about 1 billion people in the 21st century if no strong measure is taken.
“We wanted to be sure that for the production of cigarettes or other things (in the tobacco sector), we do not want to encourage FDI because we have ratified (a framework of) the WHO,” Sitharaman said. However, she said that the move could have a possible impact on tobacco farmers “but we have to look at alternate crops for them which will give them good yield.”