Major cigarette manufacturers including ITC, Godfrey Philips and VST have decided to shut all their factories and stop manufacturing with effect from Friday in the wake of larger pictorial warnings covering 85 per cent of the packaging space coming into force.

The companies, which are members of Tobacco Institute of India, account for more than 98 per cent of the country’s domestic sales of duty paid cigarettes.

TII Director Syed Mahmood Ahmad said Indian tobacco industry had written to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 15 March seeking clarification on the matter. Fearing a potential violation of rules by continuing production, TII members have decided to shut their factories.

The notification by Health Ministry on September 24, 2015, for implementation of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labeling) Amendment Rules, 2014, comes into force from 1 April 2016. These prescribe larger pictorial warnings on tobacco products.

The Union Health Ministry, however, dismissed the remarks that there wasambiguity in the policy. A ministry official said the government was “very clear” that packaging done on such products from 1 April will have to display 85 per cent pictorial warning.

The ministry had made a commitment to Rajasthan High Court on March 28 that it will implement the said rules from April 1, 2016.

The Parliamentary Committee on Subordinate Legislation had described the government’s proposal of covering 85 per cent of the packaging surface with a pictorial warning as “too harsh”. The committee recommended that the message should occupy only 50 per cent of space.

The stand of committee evoked sharp criticism from MPs and health experts.