CHENNAI: As many as 108 reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India between 2009- 2018 shows that the tobacco industry is evading taxes and selling products illegally in States including in Tamil Nadu, says a report released by the Research Action for Tobacco Control on Wednesday.
The Research Action for Tobacco Control (REACT), is an independent network of researchers who work on highlighting issues on tobacco control. The REACT released the report titled “Illicit tobacco trade in India. What government reports tell us?”.
The report was compiled by REACT for a period of six months with the help of government sources from 2005- 2020. The sources include the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) (2009-2018), Director of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) (2018-2020), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) (2020), and Parliament reports (2017-2020).
According to these reports, the tobacco industry has defrauded the governments of at least Rs 390.38 crore. The DRI reports also mention massive quantities of illicit cigarettes being seized from various States. In Tamil Nadu (2018-2019) the DRI had seized 11.1 million cigarettes, the second highest numbers in the Country. Maharashtra stood in the first place with the agency seizing 18.1 million of cigarettes. The reports also pointed out that most were traf ficked via trains.
After publishing the report the REACT also recommended the Government to monitor the supply chain of tobacco sectors - start by collecting data on products and inputs, from cultivation to consumption form stricter regulatory framework to maximize revenues, and building mechanism for internal and external illicit trade with WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control.
The reports also mentioned about the gutkha scam of Tamil Nadu in 2016 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in which it uncovered the Rs 260 crore (USD) scam of banned gutkha products in the State. The report observed that in India more than 1.3 million adults die prematurely from tobacco related diseases.