Govt Puts on Hold Cigarette Warning Plan

NEW DELHI: India is putting on hold a decision to implement 85% pictographic and text warning on tobacco packs, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told ET.

The move, notified in October 2014 by the health ministry was originally scheduled to kick off on April 1. It mandated that firms start covering 85% of cigarette packs with pictorial and text warnings against 40% on the front side at present.

"No new date or definite time frame for the implementation of these warnings have been indicated in the new government notification likely to be issued shortly," one of the persons said.

This move comes after a parliamentary panel recommended that the proposal be kept in abeyance until its socio-economic ramifications are evaluated. ET had reported last week that the government is likely to defer the implementation of bigger pack warnings on tobacco products. While this delay will come as a major relief to tobacco companies, public health groups are sharply critical of the move.

"There is no precedence, no provision in the framework of rules of procedure which obligates the health ministry to accept these recommendations. As a matter of fact, the health ministry can very well reject the recommendations by giving reasons, considering it is an important matter of public health," said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director at Voluntary Health Association of India.

The parliamentary committee on subordinate legislations, looking into the provisions of the nodal law on cigarettes and other tobacco products said early this month that this move would affect employment prospects of bidi and tobacco industry which employs 1.3 crore people in the country, and hence, views of other ministries such as that of labour and employment, and agriculture need to be examined.

"Most workers in the bidi industry are impoverished and live below the poverty line. India should raise taxes on tobacco products and use it to support these workers, helping them to shift to nutritional crops from this killer crop. But even then, when it comes to a choice between livelihood and lives, we must pick lives, considering the lives tobacco claims," Srinath Reddy, president of think-tank Public Health Foundation of India, told ET last week.

India's continued commitment to the anti-tobacco cause will come under doubt among the global community if we shy away from implementing larger pack warnings and other strong anti-tobacco initiatives, he added.

The house panel, headed by Dilipkumar Mansukhlal Gandhi, said it has received several representation from various groups, including bidi makers and an MP expressing apprehensions on the move, each of which needs to be examined before taking a decision on this.

Soma.Das1 @timesgroup.com