HYDERABAD: There is an entire industry of illegal cigarettes flourishing in the city, such that one fifth of the market is flooded with these cheap alternatives which are preferred by youngsters.
The sale of these illegal cigarettes, without any health warnings labels, continue unabated in the city. Tobacco Institute of India maintains that a steady increase in the excise duty on tobacco is cited as the main reason behind smokers switching to cheap alternatives.
“I buy these unlabelled cigarette packets from Begum Bazar mostly,” says Mukkram M, a pan shop seller at Panjagutta. In 2016, a carton of these cigarettes (200 packs) costed `250 but in January this year the prices have doubled to `500 for a carton, he added.
“More people are buying these cigarettes because they are cheap. There is always demand and after weekends I usually run out of them,” said a pan shop owner from BS Maqtha. There are teenagers who buy these cigarettes from me as this is what they can afford.
Who am I to advice them not to smoke, he added Several of the cigarettes available in the market today don’t have the mandatory health warning labels on them. Many of these brands do not have the name of its manufacturer nor any MRP rates on the packets.
“The cigarette industry has suffered a significant 22 per cent loss in the last five years due to tax increase. In the same period, the government excise duty collections have witnessed a growth slump of only 45 per cent as against an excise rate increase of 118 per cent,” said TII through an email response.