Overlooking the serious concerns expressed by the stakeholders of the tobacco industry on excessive pictorial warnings on tobacco packs, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare notified an increase in the size of the warnings from 40% on front of the packs to 85% on both sides with effect from April 1, 2016.
This is notwithstanding the Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation, which reviewed the matter in consultation with all the stakeholders, finding the 85% requirement as excessive and recommending the warning size to be 50%.
India has taken an extreme and excessive position on pictorial warnings despite the fact that it is the 2nd largest tobacco growing country in the world. With 85% pictorial warnings, India is ranked eighth in the world, by the size of warnings, whereas the global average warning size is less than 45%. Among the top five tobacco producing countries, India has the largest sized pictorial warning on packs at 85%, followed by Brazil at 65% while USA, China and Zimbabwe have textual warnings only.
Moreover, the top three cigarette consuming countries, the USA, China and Japan, between them accounting for more than 50% of global cigarette consumption have not opted for pictorial warnings. Instead, they have opted for text-based warnings which adequately caution the consumers.
Tobacco Control Policies in India are based on the Western Model driven by international anti-tobacco activists and health bodies which ignore the unique pattern of tobacco consumption in India and do not take into account the reality of 45.7 million livelihoods dependent on tobacco in the country.
The 85% warning is excessively large and is adversely impacting the already distressed Indian Tobacco Farmers, further penalizing the regulation compliant Legal Cigarette Industry and providing a huge boost to the large and growing illegal trade in cigarettes in the country.
According to Euromonitor International – a well-respected global research organization – India is now the 3rd largest illegal cigarette market (by Volume) in the World overtaking Pakistan. China and Brazil are the other two large illicit markets ranked ahead of India. It is estimated that the Government loses Rs. 18,500 crores per annum on account of illegal cigarette trade.
A dangerous outcome of the increasing illegal trade is that it encourages the entry of organized criminal and terrorist syndicates, which could have serious consequences for the maintenance of law and order in the country. Internationally it has been reported, for example recently by The US Department of Homeland Security, that illegal profits from cigarette smuggling have been used to fund criminal activities.
Since smuggled cigarettes do not use local tobaccos, illegal trade impacts the livelihood of tobacco farmers in the country as demand for domestic tobaccos reduces.
The sharp and unprecedented fall in Legal Cigarette volumes on account of the growth in illegal cigarettes is a major blow to the livelihood of lakhs of Flue Cured Virginia (Cigarette) tobacco farmers, who have been facing unprecedented hardships due to a continuous drop in demand for their produce due to the shrinking domestic legal cigarette industry. With the increase in the size of pictorial warnings to 85% and the continuing drop in legal cigarettes, the plight of cigarette tobacco farmers has only worsened with devastating effect on their livelihood.
Historically, it has been seen that extreme regulations produce counter-productive results. They do not reduce demand for tobacco, but merely shift it from the legal segment to cheaper, regulation non-compliant illegal options of suspect quality, thereby undermining public health objectives.
The 85% pictorial warning on both sides of the pack, directed at creating shock and evoke emotion among consumers, are clearly anti-farmer and are resulting in penalizing the legal industry and further promoting illegal cigarettes in the country.