A committee headed by BJP MP Dilip Gandhi is advocating for a reduction in the size of pictorial warnings on cigarette packets from 85 percent to 50 percent. The committee claims that 85 percent is too harsh on the tobacco industry.
Tobacco use is linked to 9 lakh deaths every year in India. This has led the government to order manufacturers to print health warnings on 85 percent of the surface of a cigarette pack, up from 20 percent.
But the parliamentary committee has suggested in its report, that the warnings be limited to half the packs’ surface area. The move is supposedly to protect tobacco farmers’ interests, while promoting health.
The panel feels “a balanced approach” would be to keep the warning size at 50 percent, according to sources who have seen the report.
However, the government was unlikely to change its plan of implementing the stringent rules on cigarette packs from April, said a health ministry official.
The government is not bound by the decision of the panel, but it has political clout as its members are drawn from both the ruling party and the opposition. Activists fear this might result in a delay in adopting stiffer warnings on the packs.
It will be a very unfortunate reflection on the commitment to health by people involved in policy making.Shailesh Vaite, Framework Convention Alliance for Tobacco Control
Tobacco Institute of India (TII), the industry lobby, has called the new rules drastic and unreasonable. It also said the rules will hit farmers’ incomes and fuel consumption of smuggled cigarettes that do not follow packaging norms.
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